Well, I finally did it. The project I have been talking about for about a year - selling my individual stocks - is complete! Honestly selling them wasn’t the painful part, calculating the capital gains on them will be. I will probably have to dedicate a few days to that.

With the proceeds I was able to rebuild my cash reserves and pay off a credit card whose 0% term expires this month.

Monthly Goals

Pay off some more credit cards whose 0% term will be expiring soon.

I didn’t too great on my goal this month of rebuilding my cash reserves. Fortunately the stock market was up so my net worth took a bigger than anticipated jump. Other than that everything else was pretty stagnant.

Monthly Goals

Plan once again this month is I am also going to try to get working on my never ending goal of selling my individual stock accounts. I have said I am going to do this for a year or so, but every time I look at it calculating the cap gain on it turns out to be more work than I feel like undertaking.

Another up month for my stock investments which at the beginning of the year I had all but given up on. As expected my cash reserves dropped due to having to pay my hefty tax bill.

Monthly Goals

Try to rebuild my cash reserves up to their usual levels. This will probably prove to be pretty difficult since we have a large vacation planned for this month.

The stock market rebounded a bit (finally) so some of my investments actually went up this month! Shocking I know. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. I have been looking into refinancing my mortgage but have not pulled the trigger as of yet.

Monthly Goals

I am going to owe on my taxes this year so that will probably wipe out any gains I am able to make on my cash reserves. I think holding steady on those will be my goal of the month.

The stock market continues to take heavy tolls on my net worth. I also had a hefty property tax bill due this month which took away some of my cash reserves. I didn’t get as much accomplished this month as I had hoped.

Monthly Goals

Rebuild some of my cash reserves. Also I need to address my credit cards, some of the 0% balances are running out in the next few months so I need to see if I can move them to another 0% offer or if its time to pay them off.

I thought I would take some time to look at the interest rates of some of the top as well as the more popular savings solutions.

Quiznos Million Sub Giveaway

The coupon reads:

“This online certificate entitles you to: ONE FREE SUB, Free Small Signature Sub or Small Every Day Value Sub”

It also says “Valid only at participating locations” and some people have reported that their location is not accepting there, so you may want to call ahead.

Be sure to check the fine print on the gift certificates for each particular restaurant you are interested in. Some of them include minimum purchase amounts, exclude other coupons, and are only valid on weekdays.

The code is PREZ

Restaurant.com

So if you are looking I have found in previous years that Aldi’s market has the cheapest prices on flowers for the occasion. This year they have Dozen Premium Long Stemmed Roses for $16.99, and then assorted other flower bouquets for $6.99.

I have gotten flowers from there each of the previous 2 years on v-day and have always been happy with the quality. At least I can see them here instead of just getting whatever some dot com sends (which I have always had back luck with).

Aldi’s Store Locator

Its been quite a plunge the last few weeks, almost half a point reduction in the rate. I still am holding my cash reserves in this account, but probably one more significant drop and I will seriously be considering transferring. In the meantime I will keep my eye out for the higher rate accounts out there that hopefully are more stable.

Dollar Savings Direct

Not entirely unexpected as the USPS has increased the cost each of the last 3 years. They lost $2.8 billion in 2008, and unless there is some kind of dramatic turnaround they are expected to post an even larger loss this year. They have even asked Congress to take away the legislation that requires them to deliver mail 6 days a week.

You can continue to buy forever stamps at 42 cents until May 10, which will still be good when the rate increases with no additional postage.

Below is a look at how the prices have stamps have increased over the last 20 years. As you can see, the updates have been more frequent but generally have been less dramatic than they were in the past.

AP Article: Stamp prices to go up 2-cents in May

I can’t say its a big shock to me. Seems like every workplace is cutting back, and I would rather have them take these measures than take more drastic ones in the near future. And our CEO has been saying since the beginning of the year that things will be tight with the way businesses are spending this year.

• No More 401k Match - Our company has always had a 4% match on our 401k contributions. As of this week they will no longer be matching anything. This has me thinking about starting up a standard IRA since without the match there is no incentive for continue to fund their plan which has limited choices (at least until I get over the $5,000 limit).

• No Performance Based Raises - We will not be getting any raises based on our yearly evaluations, so my pay will be flat this year. This is probably the most disappointing change for me since I am one of the stronger members of my team and usually get a pretty good raise each year.

• No Vaction Rollover - Previously we were allowed to roll over 5 vacation days a year (non-accumulating, so not 5 this year, 10 next, etc). I’m actually not really sure how this saves the company money, but it just means I have to use 5 more vacation days this year. Personally I think they have been wanting to get rid of this for a couple years and are able to use this as an excuse.

They say they are hoping these changes are temporary and they will be able to reinstate them for next year.

While disappointing, the only other bank I see offering a significantly higher rate is Broadway Federal (4.08% APY) - however that appears to be a promo rate which won’t last. There are some other rewards checking accounts with higher rates, but you have to jump through too many hoops for my taste (10 debit card transactions a month, direct deposit, sacrifice first born…).

So I will be sticking with Dollar Savings for the time being.

Most of the time I do not close my old accounts in case the rate goes back up there. However I have found that usually when it goes down a significant amount, it never comes back up. So in the interest of simplicity I have decided its time to go through my checking and savings accounts and weed some of them down.

Accounts I’m Keeping

• Charles Schwab Investor Checking (1.00% APY) - While the rate has plummeted since I first opened this account last year I am using it as our main checking account. It would be a huge headache to switch this one over to a different bank. Plus it has some pretty decent perks which keep me around - ATM rebates, free checks, free prepaid envelopes for deposits, and a pretty good website.

• Dollar Savings Direct (3.5% APY) - This one has also dropped a bit since I opened it, but remains one of the higher savings accounts out there. It will remain my main savings account.

• HSBC Free Checking / Online Savings (0% / 2.45% APY) - I like to have a local bank just for certain situations. Since Schwab doesn’t have a local branch I will keep HSBC around as a backup.

Accounts To Close

• Countrywide Bank SavingsLink (1.65% APY) - This was my latest main savings account, but the rate dropped like a rock when the credit crisis started. I don’t see this going back up anytime soon.

• Emigrant Direct (2.40% APY) - This is one I had quite some time ago. The rate has not been competitive in years so I think its time to abandon ship.
• KeyBank Express Checking (0% APY) - This is another account I haven’t used in years. I no longer have any checks from here, just haven’t gotten around to closing it out.

Debating

• ING Direct Orange Savings (2.20%) - This is another account that has not been competitive in quite a long time. However they have a great website, and also a pretty good referral program I may use at some point.

My goal is to have these accounts closed out by the end of the month.







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/reducing-the-number-of-open-banking-accounts/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/reducing-the-number-of-open-banking-accounts/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/5arzLqKTXwY/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/budget/january-2009-budget-numbers-34540/#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:31:56 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=608 Summary

After deciding to keep closer track of my budget this year, I setup some budget tracking in my primary financial software - Yodlee. Since this is my first month I wasn’t really sure how realistic some of these numbers were so might need to do some tweaking.

We were $345.40 over budget this month. The majority of that came from 4 categories.

• Restaurants/Dining ($277.34) - We went WAY overboard with eating out this month. Something I think we really need to work on in the coming months. It certainly adds up quickly.
• Loans ($109.58) - We had a quarterly student loan payment due this month. That number should average out throughout the year.
• Gasoline/Fuel ($87.77) - This number may need to be readjusted depending on how the next few months go. Not much we can do here… still need to drive to work
• Personal Spending ($86.54) - Slightly overspent here. This is another area that will require some discipline to keep in check.

Other than the restaurant spending I’m pretty pleased with the first months budget. I think as we continue to watch and stick to it we will be closer to our goal. The complete numbers are below:

 

	Category	Goal $ Amount	Actual $ Amount	$ Variance
	Automotive Expenses	$50.00	$12.84	$37.16
	Cable/Satellite Services	$70.25	$70.24	$0.01
	Entertainment	$50.00	$0.00	$50.00
	Gasoline/Fuel	$150.00	$237.77	($87.77)
	Personal Spending	$500.00	$586.54	($86.54)
	Groceries	$550.00	$524.89	$25.11
	Healthcare/Medical	$60.00	$39.98	$20.02
	- Gym Memberships	$40.00	$39.98	$0.02
	Other Healthcare/Medical	$20.00	$0.00	$20.00
	Home Improvement	$100.00	$103.61	($3.61)
	Loans	$650.00	$759.58	($109.58)
	- Student Loans	$340.00	$466.30	($126.30)
	- Auto Loans	$293.28	$293.28	$0.00
	- Other Loans	$16.72	$0.00	$16.72
	Mortgages	$1,961.60	$1,961.60	$0.00
	Pets/Pet Care	$30.00	$0.00	$30.00
	Restaurants/Dining	$300.00	$577.34	($277.34)
	Travel	$416.00	$325.74	$90.26
	Utilities	$275.00	$308.12	($33.12)
	TOTAL	$5,162.85	$5,508.25	($345.40)







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/budget/january-2009-budget-numbers-34540/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/budget/january-2009-budget-numbers-34540/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/e1616woE-fQ/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/net-worth/net-worth-statement-february-2-2009-186/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:05:42 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=585 Summary

The continued decline of the stock market has continued to take quite a toll on my net worth. I was able to build up my cash reserves a bit but that improvement was all wiped out by stock loses.

I keep telling myself it will turn around eventually.

Monthly Goals

With the impending credit crisis I think its wise to save up more cash to pay off some of my credit cards even though they are 0%. It looks like its going to be harder to find these offers in the future and I don’t think I can continue to rely on being able to move this around once a year to different cards.

 

ASSETS			$ DIFF	% DIFF
	HSBC Savings Account (2.4% APY)	$471.33
	DollarSavingsDirect Savings (3.5% APY)	$18,087.77
	Schwab Investor Checking (1.4% APY)	$8,575.71
	CASH TOTAL	$27,134.81	$1,840.19	7.28%
	Misc. Direct Investments	$10,694.97
	Ameritrade IZone	$2,251.21
	Zecco	$1,396.76
	STOCKS TOTAL	$14,342.94	-$1,351.00	-8.61%
	Treasury Direct	$2,761.74
	BONDS TOTAL	$2,761.74	$0.78	0.03%
	Vanguard ROTH IRA	$11,456.16
	Scottrade ROTH IRA	$585.17
	T. Rowe Price 401K	$42,178.31
	RETIREMENT TOTAL	$54,219.64	-$3,700.13	-6.39%
	House Value	$339,500.00
	Car Value (Edmunds.com)	$7,073.00
	MISC TOTAL	$346,573.00	-$491.00	-0.14%
	TOTAL ASSETS	$445,032.13	-$3,701.16	-0.82%
DEBTS			$ DIFF	% DIFF
	Countrywide Mortgage(6.75%)	$259,183.39
	MORTGAGE TOTAL	$259,183.39	-$500.69	-0.19%
	AES Student Loan (3.625%)	$2,501.33
	LOAN TOTAL	$2,501.33	-$43.85	-1.72%
	BOA MC (0%)	$14,555.00
	BOA NEA (0%)	$15,569.58
	Bank Atlantic (0%)	$4,320.81
	Citi Upromise (0%)	$11,877.18
	CREDIT CARD TOTAL	$46,322.57	-$555.81	-1.19%
	TOTAL DEBTS	$308,007.29	-$1,100.35	-0.36%
NET WORTH		$137,024.84	-$2,600.81	-1.86%









]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/net-worth/net-worth-statement-february-2-2009-186/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/net-worth/net-worth-statement-february-2-2009-186/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/o3dwNZu5dMU/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/my-best-investment-of-2008/#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:00:46 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=549 This winter has been pretty brutal here in the Northeast. So the best investment I made for myself last summer was purchasing a snowblower.

Okay… so maybe a depreciating item isn’t an investment (that would be like thinking of your car as an investment). However those of you who saw my 2008 recap know I didn’t make too many positive investments last year, plus the time and strain I have saved this winter has more than made up for its purchase price.

It used to take me over an hour or more to shovel out my driveway when we got a moderate snowfall. Now with the snowblower that has been cut down to about 15 minutes.

Getting A Good Deal

Instead of purchasing a new snowblower, I decided to buy used. I used Yahoo Pipes to craft a custom Craigslist search that included some different terms (snow, snowblower, snowthrower…). I was then able to keep track of this search through Google Reader so I would be updated when a new one went for sale.

I eventually found one over the Summer from someone who was moving South. It was only a few years old, still under warranty, and they were asking less than 1/2 of the price of a new one.

Of course it took me a month or 2 of waiting to get that deal. I often find with Craigslist if you are looking for something immediately then you usually end up overpaying - but if you are patient, the right deal will come.







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/my-best-investment-of-2008/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/my-best-investment-of-2008/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/Vm0rMao6BQM/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/zecco-increases-min-balance-for-free-trading-to-25k/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:07:50 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=567 Sad news from my favorite free online brokerage. While their homepage is still touting free trades for balances of $2,500, once I logged into my account the following information appeared.

Effective March 1, 2009, you will need to a $25,000 balance to get your 10 free trades with Zecco. Otherwise they will credit 10 free trades for every 25 trades.

At only $4.50 per trade under this balance, Zecco is still pretty cheap in the land of online brokerages. But its hard to go up from free.









]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/zecco-increases-min-balance-for-free-trading-to-25k/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/zecco-increases-min-balance-for-free-trading-to-25k/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/Chyh0-FQDVQ/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/site-news/follow-me-on-twitter/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:37:23 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=542 I finally decided to link The Finance Journey up with the social networking revolution. I have created an account on Twitter which you can keep up to date on all the postings here and also my random thoughts, interesting links, and other items that do not make it to a full post here.

Follow Me On Twitter!







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/site-news/follow-me-on-twitter/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/site-news/follow-me-on-twitter/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/D7doX4FF8h4/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/irs-efile-when-will-i-get-my-refund-direct-deposit-or-check-2009/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:00:06 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=519 For those of you like me wondering when you can expect to receive your refund direct depot or check once you efile the IRS has a handy publication 2043 with this information.

The table below shows when your federal tax refund should be deposited in your bank account or your check mailed if you efiled and your refund was accepted within certain dates.

Transmitted and accepted (by 11:00 am) between…	Direct Deposit Sent	Paper Check Mailed
Jan 16 and Jan 22, 2009	Jan 30, 2009	Feb 6, 2009
Jan 22 and Jan 29, 2009	Feb 6, 2009	Feb 13, 2009
Jan 29 and Feb 5, 2009	Feb 13, 2009	Feb 20, 2009
Feb 5 and Feb 12, 2009	Feb 20, 2009	Feb 27, 2009
Feb 12 and Feb 19, 2009	Feb 27, 2009	Mar 6, 2009
Feb 19 and Feb 26, 2009	Mar 6, 2009	Mar 13, 2009
Feb 26 and Mar 5, 2009	Mar 13, 2009	Mar 20, 2009
Mar 5 and Mar 12, 2009	Mar 20, 2009	Mar 27, 2009
Mar 12 and Mar 19, 2009	Mar 27, 2009	Apr 3, 2009
Mar 19 and Mar 26, 2009	Apr 3, 2009	Apr 10, 2009
Mar 26 and Apr 2, 2009	Apr 10, 2009	Apr 17, 2009
Apr 2 and Apr 9, 2009	Apr 17, 2009	Apr 24, 2009
Apr 9 and Apr 16, 2009	Apr 18, 2008	Apr 25, 2008
Apr 16 and Apr 23, 2009	May 1, 2009	May 8, 2009

 







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/irs-efile-when-will-i-get-my-refund-direct-deposit-or-check-2009/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/irs-efile-when-will-i-get-my-refund-direct-deposit-or-check-2009/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/z1s_pezinb8/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/taxes-federal-and-state-efile-for-1190-with-taxact/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:21:48 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=493 TaxAct is one of the cheapest options out there for filing your taxes. They offer FREE federal filing, and then charge $13.95 for a state efile if you chose to do so (you can chose just to efile your federal taxes through them for free if you wish).

However, if you use the link below you will get 30% off your purchase making it only $11.90. This is the best deal I’ve seen out there for both Federal and State Efile. I’ve used TaxAct in the past and their website is pretty good… maybe not quite as good as TurboTax but the price difference is worth it in my opinion.

TaxAct - 30% off







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/taxes-federal-and-state-efile-for-1190-with-taxact/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/taxes-federal-and-state-efile-for-1190-with-taxact/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/6NyJ5cvSnw8/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/dollar-savings-direct-lowers-rate/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:15:45 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=485 Last month I was disappointed by the decline in interest rate on my Countrywide Savings Account (which is now all the way down to 1.75% now) . I decided to switch to Dollar Savings Direct who was offering a 4.0% APY online savings account.

Well, last week Dollar Savings Direct lowered their rate to 3.5% APY.

While disappointing, I can’t say it was unexpected. Its still just about the highest savings rate out there even after dropping half a point. Seems like I made the right move switching when I did as their rate is 2x what Countrywide is currently at, whose rates became uncompetitive when their banking division was swallowed by Bank of America. I plan on continuing to use Dollar Savings.

Dollar Savings Direct







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/dollar-savings-direct-lowers-rate/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/dollar-savings-direct-lowers-rate/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/hmQXbVk2wPg/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/starting-to-use-yodlees-budgeting-features/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:32:22 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=460 It seems like every time I try to use Quicken or MS Money to track my expenses I always end up giving them up after a few weeks. I always find that they can’t automatically update some of my accounts and I have to manually import the data in. That combined with having to open yet another program always makes me go back to just using Yodlee Moneycenter to track my finances.

In the past I always just used Yodlee to see what bills were due, what the balances on my accounts were, and what transactions I had made. This year I decided I would try out some of the budgeting features on the website and see how well I could track those. I know they won’t have all the bells and whistles of the standalone programs, but I have been using Yodlee for about 4 years now almost exclusively so I know I won’t be getting rid of it anytime soon and that it can handle all my accounts.

Using Sub Categories For Custom Budgeting

When I dug into it I actually never knew after all this time that you could setup custom sub categories. This helps me to align some of the default categories with things more in line with my lifestyle.

However, when it came to the actual budgeting of these things became a bit confusing. I setup 2 custom categories under General Merchandise - one for my discretionary spending and one for my wife. However when you go to the budgeting like in the below image… do I put the budget at the sub category level or the category level? The category level does not update with the totals from the sub category (I put that in).



After digging into it more, I realize you have to setup both the category goal, and the sub category goal which is the way I have done it above.

Overall Impressions

I only started this week so I’m not sure. There are some things you obviously lose when you go to a web interface, like I wish I could customize the look of the chart in the budget vs actual screen (my mortgage budget is so high that it makes small budget goals hard to read since it expands the scale so much). Overall though I think I am more likely to stick with it since I know I will keep using Yodlee.

If you want total control over the look and expenses, then its probably not for you and you should stick with Quicken, MS Money, or your Excel spreadsheet with 500 tabs and 20 pivot tables. But I think its a pretty good alternative to those pricier software packages for the average user who doesn’t want to be so methodical or doesn’t want to track down their financial information in 20 different spots.







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/starting-to-use-yodlees-budgeting-features/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/starting-to-use-yodlees-budgeting-features/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/kp5CHQPUgxs/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/deals-and-steals/download-turbotax-business-2008-for-free/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:46:11 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=451 For a limited time, Intuit is offering their TurboTax Business software via download for FREE. This software normally costs $109.95.

This version of TurboTax is for your business taxes - so great if you have a corporation, partnership, or LLC (note: this is not for your personal taxes). It also says it includes a free E-File with the software. This is for the Federal version only, if you need to do a state return you are on your own for that (or you can pony up $50 for the TurboTax Business State).

You have to register on their site below to download it. I downloaded and installed it myself this morning and it was pretty painless.

Download TurboTax Business FREE







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/deals-and-steals/download-turbotax-business-2008-for-free/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/deals-and-steals/download-turbotax-business-2008-for-free/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFinanceJourney/~3/9_eyK3ULf-o/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/stuck-on-your-taxes-get-free-tax-help/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:42:48 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=445 Started your return early this year but stuck on a section of your taxes?

From now until the end of January, Intuit’s TurboTax is offering a special promotion. If you go to their site via FreeTaxQuestion.com (which links up to the TurboTax site) between 7am-7pm Pacific time an actual human tax expect will call you within 24 hours to discuss your question.

The catch? They will only answer 1 question per phone # for the duration of the promotion. If you need more hep you will need to pay up. They also will only answer Federal tax questions for forms 1040 (personal) and 1065, 1120, or 1120S (business) - no State questions.

Seems like its at least worth a shot if you have one thing you are stuck on with your taxes.

FreeTaxQuestion.com







]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/stuck-on-your-taxes-get-free-tax-help/feed/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/stuck-on-your-taxes-get-free-tax-help/