Online Insurance Services
Unwired Buyer is a service that allows you to bid on eBay auctions through your phone, and is currently giving out a free $20 via PayPal for new users that sign-up and complete a phone bid. I was pretty skeptical of the offer at first, but I just got paid about three days after my initial bid. Easy twenty bucks.
To qualify, you must have a 10+ feedback score, or have been registered for 12 months. Here's the step-by-step on getting your free money:
Unwired Buyer is a service that allows you to bid on eBay auctions through your phone, and is currently giving out a free $20 via PayPal for new users that sign-up and complete a phone bid. I was pretty skeptical of the offer at first, but I just got paid about three days after my initial bid. Easy twenty bucks.
To qualify, you must have a 10+ feedback score, or have been registered for 12 months. Here's the step-by-step on getting your free money:
I keep forgetting to write this - Emigrant Direct is rolling out their new website on 7/24. Current accountholders should get an access code via snail mail. In addition, they announced that their interest rate will increase to 5.15% APY on 7/28.
Want an account? Get up to a $20 bonus for signing up here.
...discussion at Vanguard Diehards forum, started by a newbie investor after today's big stock market jump. Does it sound familiar?
I am 27 years old and just recently decided to buy into the market in a lump sum in a taxable account ... on May 10, 2006, I jumped right in with about 35K. I couldn't have picked a worse time to buy in. Two months later I'm down $2,600 with no recovery in sight, and little confidence of any near term turnaround. So last Friday, I moved everything to a money market account, and missed today's bounce. Now I'm convinced that I will always make the wrong investment decisions, and can't get the thought of knowing that I threw that money away out of my mind. What do ...
This week's Carnival of Investing is up at Free Money Finance. For more information on participating and hosting schedule, please check out the main Carnival of Investing page. MyMoneyBlog also participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance at Just Another Money Blog.
Lots of good comments on my previous post on how much to spend on housing. As a follow-up, let's run some numbers for fun. To make things easier, let me refer to what I call mortgage calculator heaven at DinkyTown.
How Big A Mortgage Can I Get?
Let's start with the Mortgage Qualifier calculator and use the 'Total Monthly Payment' option. I'll assume an annual gross income of $100,000, but let's also say I go nuts and pay 41% of it towards housing: $3,417/month. With no cash on hand, a 6.25% APR 30-year fixed mortgage, no other debt payments, and the defaults for everything else, it says I can get a loan for $432,378. Here's how the monthly payment breaks down:
My buddy just had a free meal at Todai, a Japanese seafood and sushi buffet located primarily along the West Coast. They offer free meals to people on their birthday (they check ID), as long as you go with one paying customer. I usually avoid buffets, but where else can two people eat about five pounds of raw fish for $30? And unlimited crab legs. Mmm... I love sashimi. If you see a guy eating only the fish and leaving the rice balls underneath untouched, that's me. Gotta save room!
Here's a nice list of other places to get free food on your birthday. Many are just desserts or kids-only, but it includes such chains as Red Lobster, TGIFs, Baskin Robbins, ...
My new favorite pastime is searching MLS listings for houses. Who needs baseball when you can drool over houses you can't afford? Or can I?
I'm also reading Automatic Millionaire Homeowner by David Bach (free review copy, will give it away when I'm done). Inside it refers to the FHA guidelines for how much of your income should go towards your house payments. Specifically, lenders use a term called PITI - the sum of your principal, interest, (property) taxes, and insurance payments. To get an FHA-insured loan, your monthly PITI should be between 29% and 41% of your gross monthly income, depending on your other recurring debt such as credit cards or student loans. Let's take a look at what that means:
Looks like the Citibank and American Express alliance has started with a bang. The new Citi Dividend American Express Card is almost identical to their very popular Mastercard Dividend card, with no annual fee, 5% cash back on supermarket, drugstore and gas station purchases, and 1% cash back on other purchases.
If you don't have one of these yet, they are a great way to earn some easy rewards on money you're spending anyways, and the rewards rack up quickly. All you have to do is spend $500 a month on groceries and gas, and you will reach the annual cap of $300 in rewards. Already have a card and near the cap? This is the simplest way to double it. Another option is the one ...
I tend to swing constantly between being really interested in trading individual stocks and then not looking at a quote for weeks. To make things worse, I live in the Pacific time zone and the markets close at 1pm here. I am not a morning person, which leaves me with about two hours to trade each day! :/
I've always liked the idea of keeping the majority of my retirement savings in index funds, but having a separate money account to try and "beat the market", as everyone says. Maybe either give it $50 a month, or cap it at 5% of my net worth? I've read several investing books that mention this as a way to manage the urge to actively trade, but does anyone out ...
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