October 14, 2006
Oh I don’t know, my Spanish is now limited to some sorts of food and some chatty gossip with our cleaning lady.
I’m back from Chicago!!
It was a long, drawn-out ending to the past four months of scrabbling to meet deadlines. It tasted of late night jazz and smoky bars by night, and feet-shredding high-heel wearing eons in our schmooze booth by day. It’s over!! It’s over it’s over it’s over!! [I’m dancing a jig, can’t you tell?] The city was wonderful .. though I experienced nothing but what I saw through glass zipping by as I shuttled from hotel to convention center to hotel to convention center.
I brought BoyDucky a souvenir magnet of the Navy Pier, which I was right next to but didn’t get to visit, and have a few lovely pictures of the city from my hotel room which would have been very nice had there not been what sounded like a turbine engine next door that kept me up from 10 pm to 6am the next morning. The Sheraton will be getting a letter regarding their untruthful front desk clerk who stated emphatically that there was no next door neighbor and that as I was in a corner room, there was in fact, no next door either. That kept me up the rest of my few morning hours wondering if I was losing my mind or if there were neighbors of the less than lively sort, if you know what I mean.
Even though it was actually pretty nice living in a hotel for a week, alone, it’s nice to be home tapping away at my own computer. I DID miss out on my Chicago dogs, though. I’m feeling deprived about that.
October 4, 2006
There’s been too much talk of spending and saving money here lately, and not enough of cutting fixed costs and generating income other than that earned from my employer.
So, things I have to do before I leave for Chicago:
~~ Switch our internet plan to Verizon’s broadband. I’m debating which I should sign up for: the up to 1.5 Mbps at 29.99/month for 12 months with a free wireless networking start up kit, or the up to 768 kbps at 14.99/month for 12 months with a free modem. They both come with a free 30-day trial period, and $20 FatCash bonus. I know that this is a far cry from the AT&T Yahoo deal I was investigating earlier but that would have entailed changing our phone service as well and I just didn’t have the time to research the best phone plan through AT&T. Maybe towards the middle of this 12 month term I’ll work on that, in case I can’t get a better deal once the promotional period for Verizon is over.
After Chicago:
~~ Sharebuilder has an automatic investment plan promoted on their website. Since I’ve never invested in individual stocks before, I have no idea what a good deal would be, but I can take a look at this to diversify my investments. If I go with Sharebuilder, I believe Kira has a nice little signup bonus over at CashDuck, or MyPoints has a sign-up bonus as well.
~~ Otherwise I can do some more mutual funds research and pick a couple funds as income funds, not retirement fund. I can continue with Vanguard or consider Fidelity or Dodge&Cox, depending on which ones are more fee-friendly. The reason I hadn’t done this before is because I didn’t want to pay more in fees than I was investing and I need at least $3000 to open an IRA. That hasn’t changed but I should have the decisions made now so that I can move on that with my Christmas bonus money, instead of letting it sit around passively in the E-funds.
My greatest weakness when preparing for a business trip is watching my “special circumstances” spending. It becomes a tug-of-war between my usual budgeting mentality of: “Do you NEED this? Noo .. no you don’t” versus “Do you NEED this? Uh, yes, I do have to be dressed well/look good/professional/better than the new kids on the block! DUH!”
It’s critical to closely evaluate the existing items in the closet and decide what pieces can double as businessy clothes, what absolutely must be purchased, and as far in advance as possible. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m cursed with the twin disabilities of lacking fashion sense and being too d@rned small to fit into most off-the-rack clothing. [Hey, at least I admit to needing a second, third or fourth opinion!] Oh, and does being a total budgetary miser count as a disability? It does when it comes to actually getting stuff, doesn’t it?
Either of these would be sad enough, but together I’m a double whammy of potential-disaster-walking. Soooo … I combat this by recruiting more savvy friends, or getting ideas for what to look out for and shopping as far in advance as possible.
Now that the clothes shopping for Chicago has been completed, I just have to chart out the itinerary so that I can pack exactly what I need.
**If you’re travelling on your own, this could be a huge time and money saver. You save time not having to dig through your suitcase during the trip, packing time before you leave and return, you’re not lugging six pieces of luggage from car to airport to hotel to airport to car. You save money not buying a load of crap you might not need, you’re not paying for extra weight if you go over AND you save your back!**
At the same time, I don’t want to run short, even though I think All-Expenses-Paid includes emergency clothing … HMM!! Just kidding, I’m not sure that would be a valid reason: “Oh, I underpacked cause y’know, I figured I could shop Michigan Ave. Cool? Cool!”
Soooo … the next battle? Is the digital camera battle. I’ve been fighting with myself for the past two years because I bought a perfectly good point-and-shoot 35 mm camera four years ago. Unfortunately, it developed this awkward tendency to “pull” the lower left or right hand corner of the photo giving everyone a maimed, fat-cheek sort of look. The repair shop wants over a hundred dollars to try to fix it, and I’m torn between just paying almost half the price of the camera again or just buying a new digital camera. Over a hundred dollars could buy about a half a low-end or decent dig cam, right?
80% of the year, I don’t have a camera and I don’t miss it. 20% of the year, I still don’t have a camera but I really want one. See? Want. Do I need it? Well, probably not, but when these trips roll around we’re told to take pictures like the paparazzi and I find myself twiddling my thumbs and wishing that I’d just picked something up. Cause you know, I have a few hundred bucks lying around with which to “pick up” that camera. In the meantime, I drool over things like the Canon Powershot SD800 IS. Or the SD630 would be fine.
I still can’t justify the cost when it’s still considered a *luxury* given my other bills to pay, even if I did get a raise. Man, I’m no fun at ALL. I rationalize that I’m saving myself the set-up costs of the camera, the accessories of cabling and casing etc., the photo printing and all that, but am I really gypping myself of photographic evidence of all I’ve gone and done? Am I going to regret this when I’m older and have, at best, a hazy recollection that I was once in Chicago for some thing with those folks whose faces I can’t quit visualize anymore? Or more importantly, what about when I travel for FUN?
Two days before I fly out, I’m not going to go camera shopping. But I’m going to have this same conversation with myself come April if I have to go to D.C.! Or maybe sometime in December. Like that iPod conversation I had for months when I promised myself an iPod for the train ride when I started that new job: “when things get better, you can have *****” I’m such a liar.
October 2, 2006
Someone is learning a very painfully expensive, and painful lesson: TURN IN YOUR BENEFITS PAPERWORK ON TIME!!
It’s not impossible. It’s not that hard. SO DO IT. The alternatives are exceedingly painful.
He has wisdom teeth that are impacted, need to come out, and have needed to come out for some time now. He is now in a lot of pain and a bad financial situation. Wisdoms run close to $500 EACH to remove, and he’s in a bad income month [notice a trend here? Why is it that I …. ach, never mind] so of course he hasn’t the cash flow to cover it.
I don’t know what to do for him that I haven’t already. I have dramatically increased bills at home and I’m not trying to borrow trouble. I can point him in the direction of CashDuck and suggest he get his fingers a-typing. I can suggest that he ask for a cash discount or a payment plan from the dentist, and I can suggest up a storm but only the Good Lord knows if he’s going to actually listen to anything MsMiniducky has to say.
I’m not unsympathetic. I remember horrid dental pain and my heartstrings have been tugged aplenty. But I honestly couldn’t extend myself any further to help even if I had been asked to. And brutally honestly? People have to learn painful lessons when they refuse to learn painless lessons.
I still feel heartless. But my personal journey bodes to be rough enough, I can’t keep bailing people out, and as Claire pointed out, you should only lend money you can afford to give away.
So remember that prevention is worth 80% of cure! Even after paying monthly premiums [10-12 dollars?] and your share of 20%, that other 80% of the cost of treatment in a situation like this can really make a huge difference. Four hundred dollars versus $2000? It’s like buying one, getting THREE free!
September 29, 2006
Periodically I check the rewards offered by my various credit card companies to make sure that I’m not missing out on anything new. I haven’t visited thankyounetwork.com for a while, but I seem to remember that I never redeemed less than 5000 points at a time because you didn’t get a straight dollar-to-point value for denominations of 1500-3000 points. For those amounts you would get a $10 or $15 gift card.
To my chagrin, it appears that the TY network has taken it a step further: most $25 gift cards will cost you 3500 points, and for many $50 gift cards, you must redeem 6000 points! That’s ridiculous! As it is, you have to earn one point per dollar spent if you’re just accumulating points via regular credit card usage.
I hate it when nice juicy bonuses are reduced to a shadow of themselves. I remember my disappointment with Discover when they changed their rewards from doubled rewards to a palty 25% bonus, and I just about stopped using their card because of it. [The $20 Borders gift cards became $25, instead of $40.]
I suppose they make the points much more readily available now by offering a few hundred points per month for Citibank accounts and services holders. Still, I’m not about to sacrifice my Driver’s Edge dollars to convert to points, and I’m enjoying redeeming Chase Flexible Rewards points for cash checks too much to change back to a points-earning card.
I guess I’ll just have to hope that 10,000 points are still worth a $100 gift card when I FINALLY get that many points three years from now!
I had considered using CDs as a short term savings tool, but with the high yield savings accounts so readily available it just didn’t seem worth it to lock up my emergency fund money for a relatively small gain. The decision was made to trade off some monetary gain for convenience in case of emergencies.
I had even considered moving a chunk of the money to my ED account at 5.15% but Jonathon’s rate-chaser calculator showed that it would take about 66 days to make up for the lost revenue during the transitional period.
Recently, though, I’ve noticed a blogger or two mention a 5.5% CD that piqued my interest, and then I found that my very own Citibank is offering a 5.5% CD for a six-month term.
Although I’ve been accustomed to expecting my emergency money to remain agile and fleet of foot, maybe it’s time to consider putting a portion of it (70%?) into a short term CD.
The specs:
Term: 6 months
APY: 5.5%
APR: 5.35%
Opening deposit req’d: $500 minimum
The benefits:
Interest can be paid monthly to your CD, checking or savings. For CDs with terms of one year or less, interest can be deferred until maturity or credited to your CD each month. You can also have interest paid by check at the end of the term.
The fine print:
CDs renew automatically at maturity for the same term. If you don’t want to renew your CD, you have a 7-day grace period2 after the CD matures to let Citibank know, either verbally or in writing. CDs that are automatically renewed earn the interest rate in effect on the renewal date.
1 Annual Percentage Yield (APY) assumes interest earned is kept in the CD for the full term.
The terms and conditions of a Day-to-Day savings account, non-tiered insured money market account (“IMMA”) and certificate of deposit (“CD”) held in an Individual Retirement Account (“IRA”) are included in the Plan Documents for traditional and Roth IRAs. The rates for these accounts when held in an IRA can be obtained by calling 1-800-CITI-IRA.
2 During the grace period, money can be added to or withdrawn from the CD, as long as the $500 minimum is maintained.
Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is accurate as of 9/25/2006. The rate will apply only to accounts opened through this site. A penalty will be imposed for early withdrawal of principal. Fees may reduce earnings.
My questions are:
~ How much should I lock away, even if it’s only for 6 months? I think I’m comfortable with the idea of about 60-70% of my current emergency fund, but that does leave me with only about a month’s worth of immediately accessible living expenses.
~ Is it best to deposit the monthly interest back into the CD until maturity? I would assume so, in order to compound the interest and achieve the APY. Or am I illogically working that out? It’s kind of early, still.
Scenarios:
$6k, 6 months, 5.35% APR = $162 interest
vs
$6k, 6 months, 4.88% APR = $148 interest
OR
$7k, 6 months, 5.35% APR = $189 interest
vs
$7k, 6 months, 4.88% APR = $172 interest
Hm, it’s a pretty small difference…. but every little bit counts, and I wouldn’t be losing any interest accruing time since it can be opened and funded directly from my Citi checking account.
September 28, 2006
If you have a serious case to make (that does NOT include “oh, uh, whoops, you mean I DON’T have $150 bucks extra?) then you should contact everyone involved and explain -nicely, but firmly – what you felt happened and why the company should reimburse you.
In recent weeks I had a one-two-three combo of having a large payment withdrawn from
my bank account [the one I only keep rent money and car money in] twice and subsequently got hit with an overdraft fee for the second withdrawal as well as a second overdraft fee for a small check that was cashed the day after my account was overdrawn.
That was $50 I simply could not let lie by the wayside. Maybe banks can make their money off of me when I’m filthy rich and $50 is scrounged sofa change but I’m definitely not there yet!
I called my bank as soon as I saw the first overdraft and explained that
1. the first withdrawal was due to an error on the part of the merchant,
2. I understood that I would have to work with the merchant to resolve the issue,
3. BUT I wanted to inform them that I was contesting the second withdrawal so I was not ignoring the problem.
This has the benefit of letting your bank know that you’re on it and they will be far more lenient and informative than if you just let it go for a while until the merchant resolves the issue and refunds your money. It had a bonus benefit, too, which I’ll cover in a bit.
I called the merchant next and explained that
1. the original payment had been scheduled online,
2. that the scheduled payment did NOT appear on the list of pending payments as it has always appeared in previous months,
3. because, I understood that if a scheduled payment drops off the website for any reason, the merchant still considers me responsible for the missed payment
4. so I scheduled the payment *again*
I asked the merchant to reimburse me for the amount of the payment and for the overdraft fee incurred. They accepted a fax of my online banking transactions as proof of the double payment and the overdraft fee and, although they took about two weeks to send a check for the overdraft fee, the payment amount was back in my account within a few days.
The bonus from contacting the bank was that they actually reversed the second overdraft fee, without even being asked to!
After talking to about four different people [three from the merchant, and one from the bank] I came out free and clear and NOT in the hole!
Go ahead, give it a try!