My Two Dollars

Sunday Money Roundup: Getting Settled In.

David — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:30:42 +0000

I love my new apartment and while I am still unpacking everything, I already feel right at home. It feels good to have made the right decision at this point in my life, and I look forward to discovering all that Denver has to offer. So while I finish going through all my “stuff”, check out some posts I liked from the last week…

Cash Money Life asks To Netflix or Not to Netflix? I most definitely Netflix, especially now that I can stream it right to my TV from my Blu-Ray player.

Five Cent Nickel tells us that you have to Pay Back the Homebuyer Tax Credit if you sell your house within 3 years of buying it. I think this is a great idea, really.

Almost Frugal has the taxes being an untapped resource. Many people don’t realize just how much their tax dollars pay for!

Lazy Man & Money discusses why the Google Admob Acquisition is important to him. Sometimes, the gambles pay off.

Good Financial Cents has some advice on using your credit cards during the holidays.

Debt Free Adventure keeps an “extended warranty” fund at ING. Interesting concept, had never thought of that!

Money Ning wants to help you save money on cruises. I have never been on one, maybe someday I should try it out.

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Money Quote Friday – Never, Ever Have Enough Edition.

David — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:30:12 +0000

I wanted to take a second to thank all the guest posters over the last week while I was moving and getting setting up here in Denver. You guys were a big help, and I sincerely appreciate your posts!

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” — Oprah Winfrey

Have a great weekend everyone, and see you next week with all new posts. Thanks for hanging in while I took the week off!

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Three Easy Steps To Ruin Your Finances.

David — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:30:28 +0000

The following article is a guest post by David of Your Finances 101. David has been a frequent commenter here on My Two Dollars and has just published his first book Don’t Be A Mule: A Common-sense Guide to Saving More, Spending Less, and Generating Extra Income in Your Everyday Life which is available at Amazon.

I would like to provide for you right here and now the simplest and easiest way to ruin your finances. Yes, all right here broken down into plain and simple language, the best way for you to NOT manage your money.

Here we go:

First, Do not pay attention to anything:

When you bills come in the mail, I would not look at anything other than the due date and how much the bill is. Whether it is a water bill for forty dollars or your credit card statement of $1000, by no means should you check anything on these statements. Don’t check your utility bills for mistakes (i.e. a significant increase in any usages over the previous month) because these utility companies never make mistakes! With your credit cards, definitely do not look for any charges that don’t look familiar to you or anything else of that nature.

Second, Don’t sweat the little stuff.

Yes, I would not worry about any of the so-called “little” stuff. Your trips to the grocery store are only for food, so there is pretty much no way to save money there. Looking into something like changing cable companies just to save 10 or so dollars on your monthly bill is simply not worth doing. Coupons? Forget about it. A complete waste of time. Even if there are coupons out there that can save you money every single week on the items you buy most, why bother? You’ve got better things to do.

Third, Adopt the attitude of “It’s Only Money”.

You see, I realize that you probably work hard for your money, but after we get past that little insignificant fact, when it comes down to it, it is only money right? There is no point whatsoever in trying to do little things like research your larger purchases to make sure your getting the best price, or to even try to alter your lifestyle to lessen the load on your wallet. Better to go through life just carelessly letting money stream out of your wallet like there is no tomorrow. Because there really isn’t, is there? You certainly don’t need to plan for retirement, nor do you need to try to provide for your children’s future. And by no means would you ever want to get to the point to where you have extra savings in your life that you could actually get to start generating additional income for you. No, none of this is worth your time, even though you do work hard for your money.

Finally, I am being a little facetious here. It certainly takes more than these three easy steps to completely ruin your personal economy. But, if you implement these three things into your daily life, you would be off to a very good start.

For those of you interested in actually improving your personal economy, check out my recently published book. You’ll find the link below. It is based strictly on personal experiences and I really think that it can add value to your life.

About The Author: David Bakke is the creator and author of the personal finance blog Your Finances 101. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of South Florida. After many years in corporate restaurant management, David currently serves as a department manager in the retail industry. David resides with his wife and son outside Atlanta, GA. His book Don’t Be A Mule: A Common-sense Guide to Saving More, Spending Less, and Generating Extra Income in Your Everyday Life is available at Amazon.

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Holiday Budgeting: Making Tough Choices In A Recovering Economy.

David — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:30:26 +0000

Recently the news has been buzzing that the Great Recession is over, and recovery is on the way. However, with 15.1 million Americans out of work and about 30% of US factory capacity remaining idle, it’s clear that the economy is going to impact many families this holiday season. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), two-thirds of American families are going to be adjusting their holiday shopping plans.

You might be tempted to pull out the credit cards and charge this year’s holiday gifts, décor and travel, because the economy is getting better. It’s never a good idea to count on a windfall before it happens. Rather than spend money you don’t have, put the credit cards away and use cash or a debit card. According to the Annual Holiday Survey conducted by the non-profit group Consolidated Credit Counseling Services Inc. over 54 percent of respondents said they would spend less money this year due to the economy and feeling like they are carrying too much debt already.

Here are some tips to get the most out of your holiday shopping:

Create a Holiday Budget – Don’t start your holiday shopping until you know how much you have to spend. NRF estimates that the average consumer is going to spend $682.74 on this year’s holiday-related shopping. Ideally, your holiday budget shouldn’t include adding more debt to your credit cards.
Make a Holiday Shopping List –Write down a list of everyone you want to give a holiday gift to this year, the type of gift, and the dollar amount you want to spend on each person. Make sure the amounts don’t exceed your overall holiday budget. If you budget doesn’t stretch far enough, consider getting group gifts or making a few homemade gifts. Make your list early enough to give you time to shop for holiday deals.
Search for Holiday Deals – Black Friday and other sales events are right around the corner. Some sites, like Black-Friday.net, were created just to track that popular sales event. You can also visit bargain hunting sites like FatWallet.com and DealHunting.com, and search Twitter for coupons using CheepTweet.com and CouponTweet.com. If you’re shopping online, take into account the cost of shipping. Make sure you’re really getting a good deal.
Leave the Credit Cards at Home – People spend more when paying with plastic instead of cash. The easiest way to avoid putting your holiday purchases on the credit cards is to leave them at home.
Stick to Your Holiday Shopping List – When you’re at the store, buying the holiday gifts, resist the temptation to stray from your shopping list. Remember if you never intended to get it in the first place, then you’re not saving any money if you buy additional sales items.

If you have a popular gift that you absolutely have to have this holiday season, make sure to get it early. Retailers are expecting a soft sales season this year, and have cut back on their inventory to prevent too many markdowns at the end of the season. It’s very possible that once the item is gone from the shelves, it won’t be back till after the holidays.

About the Author: Kathryn Katz is a single mom, internet marketer and professional copywriter. Kathryn is a Certified Personal Finance Counselor and works for Consolidated Credit Counseling Services. The non-profit credit counseling agency offers the Holiday Survival Guide to help holiday shoppers.

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Leaving My Bank – Comparing Online Bank Accounts.

David — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:30:46 +0000

Elisa Cundiff is the guest blogger today, she is the Outreach Coordinator at Thrive, a free online budgeting tool.

Every morning I review all my financial accounts on Thrive, but last Thursday, I noticed something strange: a “$3 non-Citi atm fee”. This was an additional $3 that my bank was penalizing me with for not using a Citi-bank machine. This means that I’m paying upwards of $6 every time I withdraw money from an ATM, because I live in a town where there are no Citi-bank ATMs.

I called Citibank and threatened to switch banks unless they dropped the fee in the future. The refused, and now I’m stuck with finding another bank. But since I’m at it, I’d like to find a really good one! At least one that meets my needs right now, so that I’m not in the same place a month down the road, with another poor customer service rep at a new institution. So, I’m off to find the best bank.

For me, the best online bank must fulfill the following requirements:

It must offer free online bill pay
Must not charge me for ATM withdrawals
It must support online transfers between internal and external accounts
Low fees
Good interest rates
Must be linkable by Thrive (a personal financial advice software program that I both work for and use)

For this exercise, I’m going to rate tree different online banks; E*Trade, Charles Schwab, and ING Direct, by giving them a point for each of the above criteria that they meet.

E*Trade

Supports online transfers – 1 point
Has online bill pay – 1 point
Has low fee options – 0.5 points
Linked to Thrive – 1 point
.05% interest rate – 1 point

Charles Schwab

Does not charge for ATM withdrawals, and will even reimburse the ATM fees your hit with by the bank you withdraw from – 2 points
Supports online transfers – 1 point
Has online bill pay equivalent (called Checkfree) – 1 point
Has many low or no fee options – 1 point
Linked to Thrive – 1 point
.25% interest rate – 1 point

ING Direct

No fees – 1 point
Supports bill pay – 1 point
Supports online transfers – 1 point
Does not link to Thrive (yet) – 0 points
1.30% variable interest rate – 1 point

How did everyone rank up? According to my ranking scheme based on what I’m looking for in a bank right each bank scored the following:

E*Trade: 4.5
Charles Schwab: 6
Ing Direct: 4

So, Charles Schwab it is! The great thing about switching to Charles Schwab is that it will save me about $144 this year in ATM fees ($6 twice a month for 12 months), and I’ll have a slightly higher rate of return on my savings. Now, if that isn’t the perfect motivation to go ahead and fill out this mountain of Scwab paperwork I just printed out…

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Money Quote Friday – Tomorrow Is A New Day/Moving Edition.

David — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:30:13 +0000

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s time to move on and start over. Today is the day I am moving to Colorado, so My Two Dollars will be offline for a few days until I get settled in up there (and get an internet connection back). I hope you guys all have a fantastic weekend and see you next week. Wish me luck.

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A Dream Will Lead You Out of Debt.

David — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:30:57 +0000

The processes and practices of getting our personal finances in order are simple to understand, but difficult to implement because they involve behavior changes. In the past something about how you were managing your finances was working for you – you were getting something beneficial from it or you would have been doing it differently. For me, I was getting to avoid facing reality and could go on pretending to be “successful”.

A dream is what is going to get you through the process of changing your behavior. A Dream is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal; an idea that today seems a bit unrealistic, but so moving that the possibility of getting there will influence how you choose to live your life.

Somewhere along the way in life you may have stopped dreaming. I know I did. I don’t know the exact date, but I can pinpoint the time. It was when I began to see my options evaporating because of the choices I had made. My accumulation of debt left me needing to work at jobs that were not my passion. Debt left me unable to afford to travel – one of my passions. The Dream of taking a year off from working to travel the world no longer seemed anywhere close to being a reality.

Today, after getting my personal finances in order, my dream is becoming a reality. This dream serves as a compass by which I can check my habits and behavior. I can ask myself daily, “Is this action going to lead me in the direction of my dream or is it going to lead me somewhere else?” If my behaviors aren’t leading towards my dream then I can change my behavior to get back on course.

What is your DREAM?

Personal finance coach Matt Kelly blogs at personalfinancecoaching.com; through his coaching he empowers clients to become accountable and responsible for their dreams. This transformation eliminates the “usual” stress of financial worries and improves all aspects of his client’s lives.

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The 2009 Best Small Towns To Live In.

David — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:18:48 +0000

CNN/Money has come out with their 2009 Best Places To Live – Small Towns list, and I always enjoy checking out the towns that they include. And to my surprise this year, my hometown was ranked #16! I mean, it’s a great New England town, for sure, but to see it at #16 was pretty cool. I am sure that my mom would agree, and I have fond memories of growing up there. This is what they said about Acton, MA:

With its myriad landmarks from the American Revolution and its 1,600 acres of conservation land, Acton has a traditional New England vibe. But it’s also a highly diverse town with a large Asian community and a nonprofit Chinese-language school. The town’s progressive school system is ranked among the best in the state. Jobs are relatively stable here, thanks to large area employers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Cisco. Many residents commute into Boston by rail.

Here are the Top 10 small towns, and you can check out the site to check out all 100:

1 Louisville, CO
2 Chanhassen, MN
3 Papillion, NE
4 Middleton, WI
5 Milton, MA
6 Warren, NJ
7 Keller, TX
8 Peachtree City, GA
9 Lake St. Louis, MO
10 Mukilteo, WA

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Looks Like Progressive Insurance Is Cheapest…

David — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:30:28 +0000

…for my car in Colorado, at least. I have had State Farm car and renter’s insurance here in New Mexico, and while they have been fine I do think that they are a little on the expensive side for Colorado. The best insurance company I have ever had the pleasure of doing business with was Wawanesa, but they are only for residents of California and Oregon (unless that has changed and I didn’t notice). So, I had to start looking around and it looks like Progressive is going to be the best combination of price/value/convenience for me in Denver. And because I am a new customer, I will be signing up online, and I am going to pay my 6 month premium in advance, I am getting a one-time discount of $69 off my 6 month rate. So for my 2008 Subaru with very decent coverage, I will pay $357 for 6 months – or the equivalent of $59.50 per month. Not bad at all.

No insurance company is complaint-free though, and Progressive is no different. There are plenty of complaints on the internet about every company, so I cannot choose an insurance company based on those alone. Several people I know have had good luck with Progressive, so I will have to trust that these guys will be OK for what I need. And that brings me to you guys – what insurance company do you use? Do you like them? Do you hate them? Maybe a few comments from readers can give me some insight I may be missing out on!

Photo from Shutterstock

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Vehicle Tax Deductions For 2009 Tax Year.

David — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:25:55 +0000

Thinking of buying a new car in 2009 to get the tax benefits? Better act fast – you only have 60 or so days left before 2010! Because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, any new car, light truck, recreational vehicle or motorcycle purchased between February 17 and December 31, 2009 is eligible for a state and local motor vehicle sales and excise taxes deduction on your federal tax return. To get the full deduction of the taxes, your new car must not have cost more than $49,500 and you must not have made more than $125,000 ($250,000 for joint filers) in 2009. Of course, you have to still pay the taxes due when you buy the car, but you do get the money back when you file your taxes in a few months.

Unfortunately, the deduction doesn’t apply to used cars, but then again some of you may have taken advantage of the even bigger Cash for Clunkers program which handed out $4,500 to prospective buyers. Overall, it’s been a pretty good year to buy a new car – too bad I didn’t need one!

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