Monthly Archives: October 2010

Best of the Rest: The Power of One

Written by in Best of the Rest
5 Comments

You think one person can’t make a difference? On Thursday night at the University of Maryland homecoming, I sat in a crowd waiting for Demitri Martin and Mike Birbiglia to do their stand up routines. We waited about an hour from the time we entered the building until they came up, and at about 45 minutes in, the lovely girl sitting next to me got antsy and tried to see if she could liven up the crowd.

So she started the wave in our row. Only 4 people stood up. Again. 6 people. Again. 10 people. Again and again and again until a few peopl in the section next to us continued it until it fizzled again. Again. Again. Again. Finally it caught on. My favorite part is the first time it got all the way around. Lauren was so excited and wanted to do it again, but being somewhat experienced in wave traditions, I stopped her and told her to wait for it…wait for it…and sure enough, it started again all on it’s own. The girl laughing hysterically is her.

Enjoy the best posts I found this week:

Jaime at Eventual Millionaire teaches us 5 lessons she learned during her pay off debt year. That’s quite the task and it’s great to see she’s kept it up!
Frugal Confessions wants to know if she tipped too much. I think she did, better spend that money the next night on a bartender who actually serves you and develops a relationship with you than someone who saves you a little time but ultimately gets one thing for you.

Darwin’s Money explains why you can’t invest in a hedge fund. Even if you couldn’t care less about investing, you have to at least check out the picture he has at the top of the post!

My boy Evan at My Journey to Millions started a new site, Pregnancy Pool. If you know someone pregnant, you gotta get in on this. It’s free, but sounds like fun!

I was also featured in the following carnivals:

Best of Money Carnival hosted by Christian PF

Festival of Frugality hosted by Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Carnival of Money Stories hosted by Canadian Finance Blog

5 Comments - Leave a comment!

What is ChexSystems?

Written by in Banking, Credit
0 Comments - Be The First!

I’ve written about my experience with ChexSystems, but a lot of people don’t know what it is. After reading this post, I encourage everyone to head over and order your free (actually free) consumer report to make sure you’re in the clear.

Chex Systems is a network made up of financial institutions that contribute information on mishandled checking and savings account. 80% of all banks and credit unions in the US are members of ChexSystems. Not all banks do hard inquiries during the application process for a checking account, but almost all use ChexSystems. The members share information to help them asses the risk of opening new accounts.

How Does Someone get added to ChexSystems?

In most cases, people are added to ChexSystems when a bank closes an account for something other than a voluntary reason. This includes negative balance for an extended period of time, excessive overdrafts, outstanding balances, or fraudulent activity. Once an account is close, the account information, including the reason for closure, is reported to ChexSystems.

How Will Being in ChexSystems Affect Me?

There is some confusion about how being in ChexSystems could affect you. The first thing to know is that ChexSystems only provides information to the member institutions and does not decide whether or not to grant new accounts.

That being said, if you are in ChexSystems, there is probably a good reason for it. If you have have a delinquent banking history, you have less of a chance of getting a bank account with someone else. Many times, banks will only take on customers for checking accounts who have a good history with other banks.

What If I Was Added?

If you think you were mistakenly added to ChexSystems or if you see something on your report that you think is inaccurate, you can dispute the report either with ChexSystems or the bank that submitted the error.

While most banks use ChexSystems when determining whether or not to open an account, not all do. Another option is second chance banking account, which don’t use ChexSystems, but have other inconveniences. For example, BBVA (the people who are behind SmartyPig) has second chance checking account. The downside is that there is a $7.95 monthly fee!

Now that you know how important it is to stay out of ChexSystems, go request a free copy of your ChexSystems consumer report. This isn’t a credit report, but can be very useful if you want to check the health of your non-credit accounts. And remember, you can do so once every 12 months. What do you have to lose? Make sure you’re in good standing with the banks and you won’t have to worry!

0 Comments - Be The First! - Leave a comment!

Do You Exchange Gifts with Your Significant Other?

Written by in Money
27 Comments

The following is a post by staff writer Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff. Her blog covers living expenses, saving for your future, and the fun stuff along the way.

In the Beginning

In college, Mr. BFS and I spent weeks thinking of the perfect gift ideas for each other. We also paid a pretty penny to bring those gifts about. We definitely did not go the homemade gifts route. I remember spending $100 on our first Valentine’s Day together on candy and a couple of video games I knew he wanted. This was when $100 was what I used for my groceries for 2 weeks or more and it took me 20 hours of my part-time work to earn.

I also remember him shelling out hundreds of dollars on date nights before I started sneaking $20 bills into his wallet. He was of the mind that I shouldn’t have to pay and I thought that he shouldn’t be the only one contributing. I didn’t tell him what I was doing until a few months later, lol. After that, we knew we were getting married anyway, so we didn’t care who paid and severely cut back on our random spending. Ah, young love. :-)

After Getting Hitched

After we tied the knot, we spent even more on getting each other the items we knew the other wanted but would never splurge on. For example, about 3 years ago, I bought hubby the whole original “Get Smart” series without shopping around – there went $220. He was so happy but we have yet to finish watching all of it.

He’d then turn around and buy me whatever was on my mind at the time, like my opal earring and necklace set or even the Miche purse I wanted – girly stuff I normally avoid but he knows I was eyeing.

This system was working for us but the longer we are together and the more money we make, the harder finding the perfect gift is and the more expensive it seems to be.

Currently

Recently, we have started giving each other more experiences and less physical stuff. For my last two birthdays, Mr. BFS has taken me out for Italian food (which I adore and he’s just okay with) and then we fed the ducks at the nearby “lake”. It was so much fun! I love having the ducks surround us and tentatively peck cracked corn out of our cups!

For his last two birthdays, I have found great deals on a few board games he wanted and threw him a board gaming potluck birthday party at our house with all of our friends. At this last one, he stayed up until 2-3am gaming and happily asked for the exact same party for all of his birthdays to come, lol.

We still have consumer wants that we save for, like a new laptop since our oldest one is slowly giving out on us, but we just seem to have far fewer wants and spend way less. Hanging with our friends, feeding the ducks, or even a fun date night makes me happier than any piece of jewelry ever could. Plus we are now using the hundreds that we were spending on stuff for multiple vacations throughout the year. We both love vacations. This just makes sense for us.

Do you and your significant other have a system? What works for you?

27 Comments - Leave a comment!

Top 5 Movies About Money

Written by in Money
0 Comments - Be The First!

This article was written by Andreas Nicolaides, a movie fanatic and finance writer for UK based Money Supermarket. During his time as writer, Andreas has written about most financial topics, from fixed rate bonds to unsecured loans, but for this guest post he felt he would link his love for finance with his love for movies.

With the recent release of The Social Network that revolves around Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, business and finance is a hot topic. Over the years there have been lots of movies that dealt with all aspects of finance. While The Social Network didn’t make the cut, here is my list of the top 5!

In no particular order:

Wall Street (1987)

Possibly the most famous money movie, Wall Street has to be in anybody’s top 5. When an ambitious young stockbroker is taken under the wing of the ruthless businessman Gordon Gekko, we learn that greed is good. Gekko has to be one of most aspired to be villains of the 80s and 90s, his slick persona and ruthless attitude made you want to watch him, and although probably not the most moral of messages, what he said will echo in the movie’s legacy, “What’s worth doing is worth doing for money.” If you go with an online discount stock broker, nobody will be influencing your decisions and you’ll be able to sleep well at night!

Trading Places (1983)

One of the funniest films of the 80s and one of Eddie Murphy’s finest, Trading Places is a film that everyone should see. When two callous millionaires decide to swap the lives of a con artist (Eddie Murphy) and a snobbish investor (Dan Aykroyd) the results are incredibly fun to watch. I think Richard Schickel of Time magazine put it perfectly when he called Trading Places “one of the most emotionally satisfying and morally gratifying comedies of recent times.”

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Glengarry Glen Ross has everything, a fantastic cast, with the likes of Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon and Ed Harris, matched with an incredible script and dialog. The film focuses on a group of real estate agents who are told that if they don’t finish in the top two on the sales board after 7 days, then they will be fired. Without spoiling the film for those who haven’t seen it, some of the agents crack under the pressure. That’s the message this film portrays, that financial pressure can make people crumble!

Boiler Room (2000)

This one holds a great moral message. When a college dropout joins a firm selling counterfeit goods, the idea is simple, get rich quick. The film contains aspects of Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross, but it’s good enough to stand on its own. An incredibly fun film with many powerful performances, the message of the film is a lesson in morality when all you want to do is get rich quick regardless of the consequences.

Brewster’s Millions (1985)

This was one of my favorite movies growing up, and it’s still as good now as it was when it was first released. Having an all out spending spree is what dreams are made of, isn’t it? Having to get rid of $30 million in 30 days without having any assets at the end proves to be incredibly difficult, and it makes for great viewing. As well as having the late Richard Pryor who is incredibly funny as always, the film has a great message behind it; it teaches us how hard it can be to spend money responsibility, and on the other hand, how easy it is to waste it.

0 Comments - Be The First! - Leave a comment!
« Older Posts