I’ve been really bad at regularly making contributions to my Self-Employed 401k from Fidelity. I had only planned to put $500 a month into it for the first part of the year, since I wanted to keep as much liquid cash as possible in case I bought a house. Now that it seems like (1) we’ll have enough money both buy a house and contribute to the 401k, (2) we’ve may not buy right away anyhow since we can’t agree on what we want, and (3) the year is quickly coming to an end, I went ahead and sent in a lump sum of $10,000 to catch up!
My problem: The money just showed up on my account today, so I will ...
I’m swamped today, so here are some posts from the past that fill requests from my suggestion box:
My 401k to IRA Rollover Decision Process
Part 1 - Stay put with old 401k?
Part 2 - Roll over into Fidelity?
Part 3 - What about Vanguard?
Part 4 - My Final Decision
Although this was done two years ago with my previous job, I think it still contains a lot of pertinent information. Note that Vanguard has since gotten rid of their low-balance fee if you accept electronic delivery of statements.
Also, since then there are now brokers that have free ETF trades, most prominently Zecco Trading (no minimum balance, $30 IRA annual fee) and WellsTrade ($25,000 minimum equity, no annual fee).
About Prosper.com ...
There is yet another rewards card variation out there - the Citibank CashReturns MasterCard.
What’s special about this card is the promotional offer. It offers 5% cash back on all purchases for 3 months, with no caps or limits. Everything! This would be ideal for those that either regularly charge high amounts on their cards, or have any large purchases coming up. Got a home improvement project approching? Christmas gifts? Vacation plans? Reimbursed work expenses? I know we really racked up the charges when we moved.
Doing the math, this has the potential to be better than any of the other sign-up bonuses out there. If you charged $10,000 during the intro period, that’s ...
You’ve heard of YouTube, but what about Revver? It’s a video-sharing site that also shares advertising revenue with either people who upload their own videos, or simply share existing ones. The creator gets 40%, Revver gets 40%, and the sharer gets 20%. I just read in USA Today that they have now paid out $1 million out to users. These guys have made over $50,000 alone for this Diet Coke/Mentos video:
I uploaded my super-amateur Roth vs. Traditional IRA video for kicks, but it hasn’t been approved yet. I’m sure making serious money this way would be very difficult, but if you had the creativity or happened to get lucky taping something unique, this might be both fun ...
First, even though it could have been executed better, to the right are the results of my informal wedding cost survey. While there was a big spread, over 30% of people said they spent less than $5,000 on their weddings. Impressive! The median value was near $10,000.
Now, a few people asked me what we spent on our wedding. I’m sure more people were wondering, but weren’t so bold. 
I’ve actually avoided talking about this topic for a variety of reasons, the main one being that I don’t think I have anything especially helpful to offer on this front! However, I’m sharing all kinds of money stuff already, so why not throw it out there ...
In an effort to attract new audiences, a large group of America’s not-for-profit theaters are organizing a Free Night of Theater clustered around October 18th, 2007 in various locations nationwide:
In 2007 the Free Night program will be presented in Atlanta, Austin, Boise, Cincinnati, Cleveland, the state of Connecticut, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Lexington, Los Angeles, the state of New Jersey, the state of North Carolina, Oregon (in Ashland and Eugene), Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle/Greater Puget Sound, South Carolina, Charleston, several states represented by Southeastern Theatre Conference, Washington D.C. and the state of Wisconsin.
Despite the somewhat confusing wording, it’s not necessarily confined to 10/18, but depending on the area may include multiple plays from different groups. For example, last year in the San Francisco Bay Area ...
Many people who are with FNBO Direct right now earning 6.0% APY are asking - What is FNBO Direct’s rate going to be after September 28th? After a few phone calls, the official answer is apparently “We’re not going to tell you until we have to… on 9/28.”
This is actually pretty smart on their part. If they announced that the rate is going to drop now, then people may already start moving their money out. It’s better to keep us in suspense, playing off our hope that it will somehow stay high. I personally feel like it’s going to go back to 5.25% at the highest, otherwise they would have told us to kept us from preemptively moving. But that’s just ...
Wonder why you haven’t received your rebate? It might be because they just threw it away. Above are 1,300 unopened rebate forms that were dug out of a dumpster by a San Jose Mercury reporter (need a login?). Here is an excerpt:
I know that Shu Wong of San Jose hasn’t received the $3.50 mail-in rebate for a Vastech computer networking USB hub purchased at a Fry’s Electronics in May. Richard Louie of Austin, Olivia Sattaypiwat of Saratoga and Buu Duong of San Jose haven’t received their rebates, either.
I know this because they told me so, and because I am staring at more than 1,300 rebate requests sent to Vastech on Bonaventura Drive in San Jose. The envelopes were tossed - ...
I just found my old copy of The Millionaire Next Door, a book which found that, contrary to popular belief, most millionaires actively live in modest neighborhoods and drive common cars like the Ford F-150 truck. Flipping through it, I remembered that it also provided a target as to what your net worth “should” be:
Multiply your age times your realized pretax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be.
If you don’t have any significant inheritances, this boils down to:
If you are near this target, you are an average accumulator of wealth (AAW).
If you are less than half your target, you are an under-accumulator of wealth (UAW).
If you have more ...
Want out of your 2-year contract early? Already tried the conventional methods of smooth-talking or catching them changing your contract? The next step may be to simply give it away.
At least that’s what the author of this Wall Street Journal article How to Dump a Cellphone Contract did. Apparently most carriers allow you to transfer your contract to another person, as long as they pass a credit check. To find a potential taker, the options range from sites that charge $20 like CellTradeUSA and CellSwapper, to the free sites Craigslist and FreeCycle. Thanks to KG for the tip.
It’s not quite as easy as it sounds… you will likely have to offer to either ...
