My Money Blog

Gift Idea: Costco Membership Certificates w/ $50 in Free Costco Coupons

Posted on November 20, 2009 // 13 Comments

Update: Costco is no longer allowing me to sell these certificates. Sorry! I was walking through Costco today and saw that they starting to promote the Costco memberships as gifts for the holidays. I got one last year, and I thought it was a … [Read the rest]

Follow-Up: Google VoiceMail Now Works With Sprint

Posted on November 19, 2009 // 11 Comments

Just a quick note that Sprint conditional call forwarding is now free of charge. This means that Sprint customers can now forward all busy and unanswered phone calls to Google Voice without incurring the previous $.20/minute for conditional call … [Read the rest]

Costco Auto Buying Program Experiences?

Posted on November 18, 2009 // 77 Comments

After having some more issues with our 15-year old car, we may be in the market for a new or lightly used car. We were looking at the Honda Fit (the newest gen looks even better than the previous one), and went to a local dealer for a test drive. … [Read the rest]

Berkshire Hathaway Stock Split, S&P 500, & Index Funds

Posted on November 18, 2009 // 11 Comments

Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK) recent announcement that it was buying railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) also included a provision for a 50-for-1 stock split of B shares so that smaller shareholders of BNI would be able to be converted to … [Read the rest]

What? Kiva Is Not Really Person-to-Person Lending

Posted on November 17, 2009 // 10 Comments

I've written about Kiva before - They allows individuals to make loans starting at $25 to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world, also known as microcredit. By doing so, you can provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy … [Read the rest]

LendingClub Offers No-Fee IRA

Posted on November 17, 2009 // 1 Comment

Speaking of LendingClub, I saw that they now offer a IRA with no opening fees and no annual maintenance fees. Previously, there was a $250 annual fee. However, it does now require an increased $15,000 minimum opening balance, which essentially … [Read the rest]

Human Capital: Are You a Stock or a Bond?

Posted on November 16, 2009 // 14 Comments

Over at Bogleheads there was an interesting thread which explored how finance professor Moshe Milevsky has been pushing the concept of human capital as an additional variable to the traditional ideas of net worth, portfolio construction, and asset … [Read the rest]

Over 25% Off Real FICO Scores at myFICO.com

Posted on November 14, 2009 // 2 Comments

Need to check your credit score? Here's a new coupon for 26% off real FICO scores and all other credit products at myFICO.com. Use the promotional code NOVEMBER26 to get 26% off and a FICO score for less than $12, the best discount currently … [Read the rest]

The Great Depression: A Diary – Book Review

Posted on November 13, 2009 // 8 Comments

Benjamin Roth was a lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio during the Great Depression and kept a regular diary of his impressions during the era. The diary was required reading for his son who also became a lawyer at the firm he started, in order to … [Read the rest]

Coinstar Promo: Get $10 More With $40 In Coins

Posted on November 13, 2009 // 12 Comments

Coin-changing machine operator CoinStar is running a promotion where if you change $40 in coins into a gift card, you can receive an additional $10 gift card by mail. They offer to exchange coins into gift cards with no fee for several stores, the … [Read the rest]

Free 8gb iPod Touch Offer From BBVA Compass Bank

Posted on November 13, 2009 // 35 Comments

BBVA Compass Bank is offering a free 8gb iPod Touch when you open a checking account with $100 and set up direct deposit for 6 months. Unfortunately, there are a lot of restrictions. For one, you must reside in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, … [Read the rest]

California Increases Income Tax Witholding By 10%

Posted on November 11, 2009 // 23 Comments

California has come up with another "creative" way to get some money from its residents. First, I had to figure out how to redeem my California IOU. Now starting back on November 1st, the state increased the income tax withholding on regular … [Read the rest]