Monthly Archives: December 2009

2009 In Review

Written by in Money
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Well, we’re just about done with 2009 and I wanted to take a look back at my financial goals, the blog, and take a look ahead to 2010.

Awhile back, I stated my 2009 goals. I’ve actually changed my mind about a few of them. The amount I have saved exceeded my expectations, and I’ve decided to allocate those savings differently than originally planned.

I have saved $3,000 in emergency savings as I had hoped. Actually, I’m up to $3,400 and once I get to $4,000, I’ll start to slow down considerably as that will represent about 3 months worth of expenses.

I do have enough in my checking accounts, although I thought I would need more in checking. Instead, I’m keeping one month’s worth of expenses in my checking account, so at the beginning of the month it is around $1,700, but as the month progresses, that drops to about $500 and gets replenished later. I realized that I didn’t need that large of a buffer, so I’m putting that extra money into savings.

For the Roth IRA, I decided to forgo that and retain my flexibility. By putting it in a Roth, I would be throwing $1,000 in a very basic Vanguard account. Instead, I’m going to invest $200 a month in index funds and retain the flexibility of deiciding what to do later should something happen.

I have paid off all of my high interest student loans, so right now my loans sit at around $23,000 at 2.8%, which is definitely bearable. I’ll be paying that down slowly and if I see I have excess money in savings, I may send in some lump sums to lower the balance.

In terms of the blog, I had no idea I’d have so much fun with it. After reading and reader for a few years, I decided to take the plunge and start the blog, and it’s everything I could have hoped for.

Here are a few of my favorite articles from 2009:

Why Phone Insurance Is A Scam

Looking Good While Saving Money

How To Get The Most From Your Gift Cards

Free Shredder And Credit Card Protection

The Credit Series was a big success and I am planning to do a few other series on student loans and retirement funds.

Looking ahead to 2010:

I will be producing more of the same content. I want to focus on real stories and provide useful information to the visitors. I will also be guest posting on other blogs in the coming months, something I’m very excited about and something that should bring more traffic to the blog. I always welcome guest bloggers, and I hope to have some in the coming months as well. Finally, I may be updating the look of the blog with the help of a few friends, but that is several months away.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the blog so far, and there’s much more to come in 2010. Happy New Year!

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Waiting For The Perfect Deal

Written by in Saving, Spending
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A few months ago, Lauren was due for a new pair of sneakers, so she went on Zappos and picked out the pair she wanted. I took a look, and told her I would find her a better price. Instead, she got impulsive and bought the shoes without even letting me find a coupon. I was a little annoyed because I figured that she could have done better.

Generally, I’m a big supporter of waiting before making purchases. For electronics, waiting is almost always a good idea. Prices always decrease, and if you wait a few weeks, you can almost always find a sale on the item you want.

Turning back to our sneaker example, it turned out that Zappos did in fact have the best price on that specific shoe. Plus, their overnight shipping (she a VIP) meant she got the shoes 3 or 4 days before she would have otherwise gotten them. So, Lauren: You were right. This time. But this is the exception. Well, buying airline tickets is usually the exception. The best deals for that are usually found at least 3 weeks before the date of travel.

But I still think that generally, it’s best to be diligent with your purchases. Find a coupon, find free shipping, wait for a sale, and you’ll get the satisfaction of knowing you got a great price.

The other advantage of waiting is that if you wait 3 days and realize that you don’t really need that new video game, you won’t have that buyer’s remorse. You’ll be able to stick that credit card back into your pocket and save yourself from buying something you didn’t truly want.

Are there times when you waiting too long would actually cost you money?

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How To Get The Most From Your Gift Cards

Written by in Saving, Spending
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This time of year, lots of people have gift cards for various stores. This can lead to losing the cards, not using them for a year, or using them, but buying something that exceeds the amount on the gift card.

Here are some easy ways to get the most out of your gift cards:

1. Keep Track Of Them

Keep them in a drawer, an envelope, or your wallet so they are all located in the same place. If you leave them all over the house, you are bound to lose track of your cards and let them go to waste.

2. Buy necessities

Don’t buy just anything with your gift cards. Instead, start with what you would already have bought. With a Target card, restock your shampoo or buy groceries. This essentially turns your gift cards into cash, which is what you honestly wanted anyway.

3. Buy On Sale

Use your card before the post-holiday sales disappear. Don’t wait until February when the prices will go back up. This year especially, stores won’t have as much excess merchandise because they began the season with smaller inventories.

3. Stay Under Your Budget

Some people say that leaving $2 on your card is just a waste of money. I say that making a $60 purchase with a $50 gift card is a waste of $10, so try to get the most out of your cards, but don’t spend extra money on the transaction if it means you have to pay for your own gift.

4. Trade, Sell, Or Regift Them

If you don’t need your gift cards, try regifting them. Maybe someone else can get the most out of it. If not, head over to a gift cards exchange like cardpool.com, thegiftcardtrader, cardhub.com, or plasticjungle.com and try to trade your card for one you actually want, or sell it at a discount and get cash in your pocket.

It seems like most people misuse or waste more than just a dollar or two of each $100 holiday gift card they receive. Will you be more careful?

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The Easiest Way To Save Money

Written by in Cell Phone, Saving, Spending
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Today, I learned an important lesson about negotiating. A family member asked me to help her with her AT&T bill because she thought she was spending too much on her phone service, and after taking just a quick look, I realized that there were savings of $80+ just by cutting out unnecessary services. I’m not talking about optional services; it’s not my job to judge how people spend their money, if they think browsing the Internet on their phones is necessary, that’s their prerogative.

The $80 in savings was based on simply dropping services that were on the account but were never used. 3 of the accounts on the family plan were to enable international calling, even though nobody had been out of the country in the past 6 months. One account had unlimited Internet usage on it, although that person never used the service, and the family had 10,000 rollover minutes because their 3,000 minutes-per-month plan was simply too large.

By activating the free AT&T A-List feature (free calls to any 10 numbers on any network) and decreasing the monthly service to 2,100 minutes, they were able to save $30 each month. The international plans were dropped, saving another $15 per month (plus another $40 for charges from previous months that they were able to drop), and the Internet savings added another $10. All that adds up to $55, just by looking over the bill! I encourage you to look over your monthly bills every few months, there could be big savings just by dropping unused features!

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