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!
September 25, 2006
[of the Joneses with whom we try to keep up.] was the note I found on my credit card that was left with a friend to pay for my and BoyDucky’s share of dinner.
Actually, I was with BoyDucky’s friends/family all weekend and all I was trying to do was to pay for our portion of the bill ($44). We had to leave early to return the rental car, so I asked a friend to just sign for me. But later I found out that the card was “rejected” again. Because it “didn’t work.” And “they don’t take that kind of card.” Mm-hmm. BoyDucky’s eldest sibling is genius at blocking my attempts to pay for most meals and all I can do is protest and walk away shaking my head because unless I get involved in underhanded trickery which involves paying for the WHOLE meal for about 12 people, there’s nothing I can do to make them use my credit card. Well, he’s genius at doing it to almost anyone he wants to do it to, but that’s beside the point.
*sigh* So I inadvertently saved $44 but it touched a nerve. To begin with, I’m not the girl who likes having boyfriends because that means they never have to pay for anything. That’s just unfair.
For another thing, I just can’t help but wonder, just a little, if the treating stems from their knowledge that I don’t have money to slosh around. I know it’s probably just their upbringing – with Asians, the eldest usually pays for all- and I know that he didn’t do it to make me feel bad, but it’s sort of a sensitive thing for me right now.
My sensitivity is that it does help that I’m not paying for all these meals out so I feel like I’m taking advantage of the situation. That’s definitely not my intent, but between paying for rent, all the gas/groceries for the family, and some utilities, things are definitely tighter and there is far less disposable income available than I’m comfortable with. It seems like with all my cuts in personal spending or the lack of personal frivolous spending, I should have SOME breathing space in my bill-paying allowance, but I definitely use up every last bit of it each month.
A lot of this month’s was generated by unexpected miscellaneous expenses that have to come out of pocket:
Microwave died on 8/20: $98.80
Replaced another flat tire on 8/23: 53.95
MaDucky’s dental on 8/25: $85
Dog licenses: $30
I should be grateful that all these expenses come up and still manage to stay very close to my expense budget, but all I can think of right now is that I HATE FEELING POOR. I hate it. I hate that I can’t just make a purchase without immediate flashbacks to my balance sheet, I hate that I can’t stop analyzing every expenditure in terms of what else it could have bought, I hate worrying about making ends meet and I hate feeling Poor.
I know that what that really means is not that I want more things, that I need more things, but that I just want freedom. Freedom to decide for myself whether or not I can have something, rather than saying it doesn’t matter if I need it, I can’t afford it. Freedom not to fear making a mistake if I want to make a career change, freedom to have one thing without sacrificing everything else. Freedom to relax, for heaven’s sake!
I am my own, only, financial safety net and I don’t like this feeling. This feeling that financial disaster is just one little incident away. A car accident, a train wreck, a medical emergency. Even worse, any one of those things involving either of my parents because they’re my responsibility! argh! Of course, it would emotionally just kill me if anything happened to them, but purely practically speaking, I would have to choose between working to support them and physically taking care of them every single day that they needed care and attention. I can NOT imagine how single mothers do this alone. Seriously.
I know that I have the e-fund that’s slowly being funded but that’s for real life emergencies and both it and the retirement funds are inviolable. They may lack funding when some months are tight but they are never to be raided, especially not for optional LIFE&fun things.
So sometimes, despite BoyDucky’s admonitions that I feel guilty for things I really shouldn’t, I feel like my financial insecurity or seeming dependence is highlighted when people pay for me. I need to know they’re paying because they want to, or when it’s their turn, but not because I’m poor. Now there’s an awkward conversation to have.
September 22, 2006
This is an odd sort of birthday. BoyDucky has to work so I’m going to be grabbing a couple boiled eggs, walking myself to the BART station and moseying on up to the City to check out the Bay Area’s version of a Paul Mitchell school. [I cringe a little because their cuts are FIFTEEN dollars! That is a whole 50% more than my usual cut back home, but I only have one more weekend before the big Chicago trip and I still need to do some clothes shopping.]
The question is literally, is my time next weekend valuable enough to pay an extra $5 now? If I’m going to be preparing for my trip, shopping now would allow the tailor time to alter any suit/dress and would be the wiser course of action. On the other hand, I hate suit shopping and need moral support for that. I’m alone and have no moral support. Nor do I have a car to get around here to shop, instead of the City.
Huh, I just talked myself out of the haircut. *sigh* I’m going shoppin. Wish me luck.
September 19, 2006
Keeping in mind that your exemptions and personal allowances are two different things, the following guidelines are the key factors in determining how many allowances you should claim during the year:
To understand Form W-4, you must understand allowances. Think of allowances as cash in your pocket at the time that you receive your paycheck. The more allowances you claim, the less taxes are taken from your paycheck (and the more cash ends up in your pocket on payday). For example, you can maximize the amount withheld from your paycheck to ensure that you have enough tax withheld to cover your tax liability by claiming zero allowances. This will reduce the amount of cash you take home in your paycheck. The following factors determine your number of allowances:
- The number of personal and dependency exemptions that you claim on your federal income tax return
- The number of jobs that you work
- The deductions, adjustments to income, and credits that you expect to take during the year
- Your filing status
- Whether your spouse works
To claim the correct number of allowances, you should complete Form W-4’s worksheets. These include a personal allowances worksheet, a deductions and adjustments worksheet, and a two-earner/two-job worksheet. IRS Publication 505 (Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax) explains these worksheets.
I should have been claiming 1 for myself, 2 for the parents, and a 4th for claiming head of household so that my tax withholding would be lower throughout the year. As it is, I’ve overwithheld for about nine months so I’ve guaranteed myself a refund for next year. Ah well, could be worse!!
September 18, 2006
Tired but Happy’s on the same wavelength today: How much do you need before you could walk out on your job?
So things were going pretty well: the new girl started about a week+ ago and we’re getting along pretty well so far and training is goin’ alright. Stress levels are skyrocketing trying to keep her training and working and keep my work moving but, s’alright. For the better good in the long run, right?
The second new girl started today and I walked the both of them over to talk to our Department Coordinator who does all the paperwork to submit to HR for hirings and firings and everything in between.
She tells me that my status is still “unknown.” Huh? What status? Wha?
OH yes, remember that promotion and raise Bosses have been discussing over and over the last several months? The one that was suggested sometime in Feb/March, and then actually promised [“We’ll take care of you” were Big Boss’s exact words] in April? Little Boss’s exact words after that were “We just need to pick a title that’s accurately reflects your MANY responsibilities.”
In JULY we had a *final* exchange of emails in which he got the shortlist of titles that I’d be happy with and just didn’t want to discuss anymore. All that had to be done, he said, was to get Big Boss’s approval. In September I find myself applying for the new position – a mere formality – because for some reason, that’s a faster process than dealing with the paperwork for a raise. And just when I thought things were finally done? That the final paperwork was being processed by HR-above-in-the-sky? I’m wrong. Again. Because I’m told – true or not, I don’t know yet – I’m told that Little Boss still has not submitted my new salary. How difficult is it to pick a number?
I don’t know.
But I do know that if he doesn’t take care of it – today – as he said he would, I’m going home early *which, for me, is ON TIME* and firing up Monster.com. I’ve waited over six months for this. I’ve been talking to him, emailing him and discussing and “thinking about” this for months. And I keep being told that ” he and I feel that you’ve earned the title change, raise in pay, and change in duties. The only issue is when the title change would take effect.” So what is the problem?
There are two possibilities: either he’s neglecting me, his sole asset currently producing or he doesn’t want it to go through. Either all the time I free up for him by taking on more than above and beyond my title and responsibilities is worthless to him, or he has some issue with finalizing the promotion and is blocking it.
And you know what? More and more this sounds like what was being done with the two previous problem employees instead of proactively writing them up and firing them: attrition. He figured that the longer they went without the promotion or raise they wanted, the sooner they would get sick of the stalemate and quit. Gee, sound familiar? The only difference here is that I’m taking on THREE TIMES the responsibilities and I’m being promised things I’m still not getting. Not too much different from the things the other two wanted – I’m pretty empty handed from what I can see.
There will always be urgent and critical matters, but he can enjoy figuring out what the rundown is each morning without asking me. Because the way he’s handling matters, he’s leaving me with no choice. It’s both embarrassing and infuriating that I have to be ready to quit before he’ll take this seriously but it looks like that’s the case.
So my question is, how long do you wait before enough is enough? How long is too long to wait for a promotion? Me, I’m drawing my line in the sand today. Don’t worry, I’m not going to foolishly outright quit, but I’m going to start a serious search. Here’s hoping he gets it together.