Interview Series – Laura Adams

Laura Adams has definitely earned her nickname of the “Money Girl”.  Not only is she an author (Money Girl’s Smart Moves to Grow Rich) she’s also a financial coach -a Certified Personal Finance Counselor® – and she produces one of the top financial podcasts, the MoneyGirl podcast.

Laura’s podcast is a weekly five minute discussion of personal finance topics; her current episode (#234) goes over how to invest your business or self-employment income into a Simple IRA.  If you do the math (234 x 5) you’ll see that so far she’s produced almost 20 hours of bite-sized personal finance tips, perfect for easy consumption on your commute or daily workout routine.

However, even someone as knowledgeable about money as Laura has been known to make a money mistake or two.  In today’s interview series of speakers at the upcoming FINCON, Laura talks about one financial decision that she wishes she could do over. 

1) Describe a time that a person or company tried to take advantage of you financially and what you did to stop them.

I can’t think of a particular incident–but I’m on guard all the time to stay safe from people and companies who try to take financial advantage of me!

For instance, I get phishing emails and scammy investment offers in the mail pretty frequently. Consumers need to be pretty sophisticated these days in order to distinguish what’s legitimate from what’s bogus.

2) Describe a time you were bullied into a financial decision (by a person or a company).  How did it end up impacting you and if you could go back in time how would you handle it differently?

I’ve never been bullied into a financial decision–I take full responsibility for every stupid money mistake I’ve ever made!

My worst decision, by far, was a hedge fund that I invested in many years ago that turned out to be a ponzi scheme. It wasn’t Madoff, but the guy did end up in jail.

A dear friend recommended the “investment company” to me and I trusted him so much that I didn’t check it out for myself. We both lost lots of money. So, if I had one financial do-over in my life, that would definitely be it!

 

Thanks to Laura for sharing!  One of the things she mentions, phishing, can have nasty effects but is actually pretty simple to avoid.  If you’re not familiar with phishing, it’s basically when criminal sends you an email that makes you think it’s from a trusted source and includes a link to a nefarious website that’s setup to steal your information.

How I Avoid Phishing Scams

To avoid phishing scams, I’m very careful about what links I click on in an email.  Even if I know the person I always hover over the link to see where it will take me.  Usually I’ll just open a new tab on my browser and type the website into the address bar of the browser.  If it’s an extremely long web address that I don’t want type out sometimes I’ll click on it, but only if I know the person sending the email and recognize the site that the link leads me to.

Doing Your Homework

The experience Laura shared about a Ponzi scheme she got involved in through a friend is a tough because often the best people to work with come through referrals.  So if a family member or friend you trust recommends a product or service you’re a lot more likely to give it a try.  Referrals are great but as Laura mentioned above you should do your own research before handing over any money.

One way to try out referrals is to start off small.  So if a friend recommends an auto mechanic, don’t go there and have your timing belt replaced the first time you use them.  Instead, start off with having them change your oil and rotate your tires.  If you like how they do business and feel they’re competent then you can trust them with bigger jobs.

Another thing to do is to just ask a lot of questions.  Many legitimate service providers may gloss over details to begin with but will go into more depth if you ask them.  However, someone who’s up to no good or has something to hide may avoid your questions or try and confuse you with jargon.  Don’t feel embarrased to keep asking questions until you understand what you’re getting for your money and feel comfortable with the arrangement.

---

Betterment Review

The new online brokerage Betterment has been getting positive feedback for the simple approach they offer investors so we decided to take a look at what exactly the firm offers.

What is Betterment?

Betterment is an online investment option that offers an alternative to companies like E*Trade, Charles Schwab, TradeKing, and Scottrade. As you’ve seen in the broker reviews the discount brokerage market is full of options each with their own positives and negatives.  What makes Betterment different than these other brokers is that they focus on keeping costs low and making investing simple.

Betterment Investment Options

Betterment aims to reduce your barriers to investing. Many people are intimidated when it comes to investing and putting their hard-earned money at risk. They see a bunch of acronyms (401k, 403b, Roth IRA, Traditional IRA) and too many options.

In some ways, the hardest part of saving for retirement is deciding where to invest your money and just getting started.  Being confused by the process or your options increases the odds that you will put it off. Betterment is trying to tackle this issue by making saving and investing incredibly simple. The company offers only two investment options in what they call baskets:

• Treasury Bond Basket
• Stock ETF Basket

Each basket is made up of a mix of ETFs chosen by the Betterment investment commitee.  The Betterment website explains how they choose which ETF’s to include in the bond basket.  Here’s a snapshot of the current allocation:

The Stock ETF basket holds a grouping of exchange traded funds to that’s designed to give you a growth option to your portfolio while not taking on excessive risks.  The Betterment site also explains how they select the ETFs with a key goal ofdiversification .

You are given the ability to change your overall asset allocation between the Stock and Bond baskets. You could do 10% in Treasuries and 90% in stocks today, change your mind, and switch to 50% Treasuries and 50% stocks.

That’s as complicated as it gets. Decide what percentages you want in risky investments versus conservative investments. Your focus becomes regularly investing funds rather than deciding what mutual funds, ETFs, or individual stocks to choose.

Hiding Complexity

If you haven’t noticed yet, simplicity is one of the key factors of the investing options that Betterment offers.  They do a good job of hiding some of the complexities from you, for example:

• Re-balancing every quarter, or, when an allocation is more than 5% from the target 
• Creating a diversified portfolio comprised of over 3,000 different companies inside cost efficient ETFs

• Dollar based, fractional share investing into ETFs

Things like these combined with automatic deposit and regular contributions over time help investors avoid the roadbumps that keep people from investing in the first place or prevent them from following some of the investing best practices such as diversification and proper asset allocation.

Betterment Investing Fees

Unlike other discount brokerages that charge a per trade cost (ranging from $5 to $20), Betterment has a different take. Instead of charging per trade, they add an expense ratio to your account. The level of the percentage is based on the amount of money you have invested with the firm.

The lowest level accounts (under $25,000) are charged 0.9% of the total invested. If you invested $10,000, you would pay $90 per year. The expense ratio gradually decreases as your balance increases. At the top end of the range — anything over $500,000 — you pay 0.3% per year.

Room for Improvement 

One of the ways I see Betterment being useful is for people who want to save for retirement but haven’t started because they’re uneasy with the whole investment process.  Unfortunately, Betterment doesn’t have the option of opening a retirement account.  Of course you can save for retirement outside of an IRA but then you give up the tax advantages of a retirement account.  I spoke with someone at Betterment regarding retirement accounts and was told they’re a high priority and will be coming soon.

Another pretty standard feature for mutual fund companies and brokerages is the ability to open a joint account.  Betterment doesn’t offer joint accounts right now; it sounds like they will be available at some point but there’s no timeline for when that will be. 

Another nice to have would be the ability to create multiple investment accounts with a different asset allocations for each.  So if you wanted to have two investment funds, each with a different time frame, you could set the investment allocation separately for each of them – Update: I’ve heard from Betterment and a feature that supports this is being released later this month.  You’ll be able to create sub accounts and each will have it’s own allocation.

New Account Bonus

Betterment is offering new customers a $25 bonus for trying it out.  Betterment doesn’t require any account minimums, however, if you sign up for Betterment and deposit at least $250 into your account to try it out, they’ll give you $25 – Click here for the bonus.

---

FHA Loans 101

An FHA loan is one of the tools available if you want to buy a home but don’t have much money for a down payment. I actually bought my home with the help of a FHA loan. However, it is important to consider the pros and cons of a FHA loan before jumping in.

What is an FHA Loan?
The FHA loan is backed by the Federal Housing Administration. With a FHA loan, the government guarantees the loan, so that a lender is at a lower risk should you default. FHA loans were not terribly popular before the financial crisis of 2008, since it was possible to get 0% down home loans fairly easily.

Now, though, with many mortgage lenders tightening requirements, the 3.5% down payment requirement for a FHA loan seems attractive to many. It is important to note that the 3.5% down payment option is only available to those who have a credit score of at least 580. If your credit score is between 500 and 579, you will need a 10% down payment. FHA loans are not available to those with credit scores are less than 500.

You do need to show sufficient income to be approved for a FHA loan, and some of the guidelines are stricter than what was available prior to the financial crisis.

Private Mortgage Insurance
When you borrow for a mortgage that’s not an FHA loan, banks and other lenders ask for at least 20% down on the home to protect themselves against a default.  If you don’t have enough money to make a 20% down payment, they may still lend you the money but you’re required to buy private mortgage insurance.

Private mortgage insurance (PMI) usually amounts to between 0.5% and 1% of the entire loan amount each year. If you have a $200,000 loan, and the PMI is 0.75%, you will pay $125 a month each year until your loan to value ratio drops to 80%.  Although the existence of PMI does extend home ownership as an option to many that might not be able to afford it, that monthly fee can add up to a big expense for the homeowner.

PMI vs FHA Insurance Premiums
If you borrow money with an FHA loan, you don’t pay PMI but you do have to pay into a fund that guarantees FHA loans.  This fund is an escrow account setup by the U.S. Treasury Department.  Lenders are still exposed to the risk of default (even more so since the down payment is so small) but the Federal Housing Administration is agreeing to back the loan with the escrowed funds paid into by FHA borrowers.

When you have a FHA loan, you will need to pay 1% of the loan amount up front (Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium), and then an annual premium depending on the term of the loan and how much you put down. (You can add the 1% up front premium to the loan amount.) You have to pay the premium for at least five years, and you stop paying the premium once your loan to value ratio reaches 78%.

The table below is based on the rates on the FHA website for new loans after April of 2011.  The table shows the annual premium for an FHA loan according to the length of the loan and the size of your down payment.

		Loan Term
		<= 15 Years	> 15 Years
	< 5%	0.50%	1.15%
Down Payment	>= 5%	0.50%	1.10%
	< 10%	0.50%	1.10%
	>= 10%	0.25%	1.10%

 

So, to figure out how much mortgage insurance you’d pay with a conventional loan vs FHA loan you’d first figure out your monthly premium based on your loan term and the size of your down payment.  Multiply that times the number of months it would take you to pay down the loan to less than 78% loan to value ratio.  Then add that number to the amount of your Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium and you’ll have the total cost of insurance for your FHA loan.

There are many variables involved in this decision.  In addition to the term of your loan and the amount you have to put down, you also have to factor in what the appraised value of the property will be.  In terms of determining if you can afford the monthly payments, you’ll also need to know what interest rate you’ll pay.  The combination of the interest rate and the term of the loan will determine what your monthly payments will be – which you need to know in order to figure out how long it will take you to pay down your loan to the point where you have at least 20% equity in your home. I haven’t seen a good calculator that compares a conventional loan vs an FHA loan but if I find one I’ll be sure to write about it.

Saving Up for a Down Payment

Right now, with tighter lending standards, a FHA loan can be quite tempting. You have a lower down payment requirement — and a lower credit score requirement. However, you might end up paying more. A bigger down payment can save you money in the long run, since you will be financing less, and paying mortgage insurance premiums for a shorter period of time.

What you decide depends on your priorities: Do you want to buy now and long in a lower home price and lower interest rate? Or do you want to save up for a down payment and borrow less? In the end, it depends on whether you want the home now, without saving up, or whether you want to wait until you have a bigger down payment.

---

Interview Series – Kylie Ofiu

Who could say no to a big list of ways you can make extra money?  That must be why Kylie Ofiu’s original list of money making ideas on her blog was turned into a recently released book, 365 Ways to Make Money. 

Like many parents of little kids Kylie was looking for ways to earn some extra money.  She made a list of ideas and published them on her website.  One thing led to another and now she’s an author and speaking at the Financial Blogger’s Conference next month.  In case you missed the first few interviews, I’m asking conference speakers the same two questions, about how they handle being pushed around financially.

I can relate a little to Kylie’s first story below, I remember when my wife and I sat through a similar presentation right before we were married.  We probably said no thanks about 50 times before they finally realized we weren’t going to buy and then they finally left us alone.

1) Describe a time that a person or company tried to take advantage of you financially and what you did to stop them.

When my husband and I first bought our house in 2006 we were setting it up with all the furniture and things when we got invited to a dinner party. The party was actually a hard sell for some pots and pans, which we were offered interest free terms for 5 years. They were fantastic pots so we signed up.

About 6 months later, I wanted to check our balance and see if we could get a discount for paying the whole lot out now. When they told me how much we owed it was $2,000 more than we had signed up to pay. When I queried it, they said well the weekly payments you signed up for over 5 years work out to be this amount, and we charge xx interest which is why you owe this much.

I pointed out on my paper work there is no mention of any interest, at all, or extra fees and charges. It would be assumed the weekly rate would mean the pots were paid off quicker.

They continued to push the point with me and I simply replied, “You have a choice. Remove the interest from my account or I take it up with Fair Trading Australia who will force you to remove the interest as there is no mention of it on my paperwork, so you have no right to charge it.” They said they would call me back. Within 5 minutes I got a call, they were going to drop the interest. On another call a few weeks later I also managed to negotiate a $600 discount by paying it in full.

2) Describe a time you were bullied into a financial decision (by a person or a company). How did it end up impacting you and if you could go back in time how would you handle it differently?

When my husband and I were looking for a house I wanted to buy in the state I grew up in, but he wanted to buy where he grew up, close to his family. After much ‘discussion’ we ended up buying a property near his family. I felt very much like I did not want to live here and I was being pressured by him. I really wanted to own a house, he didn’t care, so the compromise was we bought a house, but in an area he wanted.

I really wish I had pushed harder to buy where I wanted. My area was cleaner, lower crime rate, better reputation and has gone up in value $100,000 more than the area we bought in. 18 months after buying we ended up moving to where I wanted to live (due to issues with his family) and it cost us a lot. Had we bought there originally we would have been much better off both financially and emotionally.

At the time we also could not sell our house (due to the mortgage terms) so had to rent it out, which ended it in getting trashed and costing us more money. I really wish I had stood my ground and not bought where he wanted. Even he wishes that he hadn’t made me buy where we did.

Thanks to Kylie for sharing her experiences!  You can keep track of what she’s up to at @kylieofiu and her site is up for an award if you want to vote for her.

---

Replacing Leaky Windows – Roundup

Leaky windows are just another in the list of homeowner expenses we’ve run into this summer.  We’ve been in our house a little over a year now and have had all kinds of expenses pop up here and there.  The latest surfaced during a recent storm when we found a leak in one of our windows. 

I know water can do nasty things to your house so we wanted to get it taken care of right away.  As usual I looked up the three best contractors on Angies List and scheduled them to come out as soon as possible (here’s the contractor checklist I use).

Two of the companies were available Saturday, I scheduled one for 10 AM and the other for noon.  We spent two hours out front of the house with a hose, spraying potential leaky hot spots and watching for the leak to develop.  Finally we found the trouble spot, at the peak of the highest window, and he gave me estimates to replace it. 

The second window company showed up while the first guy was still there and in the middle of his closing sales pitch. I felt kind of bad making the second company wait, I had no idea the first one would take so long.  Turns out it might have been a good thing because each window guy threw in an extra discount.  They didn’t specially reference their competitor but I imagine seeing each other bidding on the same job probably had something to do with it.

Seeing the two estimates reminded me of why I always like to get at least three bids on house projects.  The estimates were almost $1000 apart.  According to the company with the higher bid, they have higher quality windows (triple pane glass, very energy efficient) and better installion crews (full time employees vs contract labor).  Now we’ll get a third estimate to see how they all compare.

No matter who we go with replacing the windows won’t be cheap.  It looked from leak test that the source of the leak may be the top of the window or even above it.  Unfortunately, the top of the window was higher than our neighbors 28 foot extension ladder would reach so I’m still not sure.  Once I can get up high enough, I may find that the window is okay and that a few tubes of caulk above the window may get rid of our leak.  That would certainly be a cheaper option, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Speaking of cheaper options, here are some personal finance tips and articles from around the web this week you can use to save some money.

Personal Finance

• 10 Ways to Simplify Your Finances @ Generation X Finance
• 6 Surprising Benefits of the One Car Household @ My Dollar Plan
• How to Create a Sinking Fund @ Frugal Dad
• 45 Ways to Save Money @ Financial Highway
• Is Your Money Working for You? @ Peak Personal Finance
• 10 Ways to Stop Wasting Money @ My Two Dollars

College

• Best Value For Your College Dollar? @ Lazy Man & Money
• Options For Your 529 Accounts If The Kids Don’t Go To College @ Suns Financial Diary
• Businesses to Start in College @ Studenomics
• Save Money with Off Campus Housing @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Investing

• Ways To Shrug Off A Stock Market Slide & Reduce Market Anxiety @ The Digerati Life
• A Primer on Futures Contracts  @ Million Dollar Journey
• Dollar Cost Averaging: An Overview @ Good Financial Cents
• Dealing with Stock Market Volatility @ The Oblivious Investor

Career

• Is it a good idea to be a consultant? @ Brip Blap
• The Corporate Stability Myth @ The Wealth Artisan
• What Would You Do If You Lost Your Job? @ Free Money Finance
• What Do You Value in a Job? @ Cash Money Life
• 6 Weird But Successful Small Business Ideas @ The Money Crashers

Thanks to the following sites for including our articles in recent money carnivals:

• The Best Rental Car Deals for Road Trips @ Narrow Bridge
• Top 10 Ways to Beat Your Bills Big Time @ Financial Uproar
• 10 Ways to Get Ahead at Work @ Stumble Forward
• 10 Ways to Get Out of Debt  @ Invest It Wisely

 

---

Interview Series – Cash Money Life

Ryan Guina shares his experiences with money bullies in this edition of the interview series. In case you missed the explanation of the series, I’m interviewing the speakers at the upcoming Financial Bloggers Conference.

As you’ll read in his answers Ryan is a former military man and now runs a site called The Military Wallet where he covers financial topics for those who serve our country and move wherever in the world Uncle Sam asks them to go.  He also runs the personal finance website Cash Money Life that covers personal finance and career topics for the rest of us civilians.

Thanks to Ryan for taking the time to share his experiences with money bullies, hopefully you get something out of the way he handled the situations.

1) Describe a time that a person or company tried to take advantage of you financially and what you did to stop them.

I don’t have much patience for bullies or people who try to take advantage of me in any form. If someone resorts to bullying, I simply leave. My time isn’t worth putting up with that in any form. And to be quite honest, I don’t want to give that kind of person or company my patronage.

Things are different when you are working though. When I worked in a grocery store during high school someone came in and tried to play the “change game” with me. I don’t know the exact name for it, but that’s when a con man buys a small item and tries to confuse you by mixing multiple transactions into one with the ultimate goal of getting back more money than he gave you.

I eventually cut him off, took all the store’s money back and told him to go to the customer service counter to get change. Of course, the change wasn’t as important to him at that point and he left the store. Here is a YouTube clip of something similar in action (use this as a line of defense only!).

 

2) Describe a time you were bullied into a financial decision (by a person or a company).  How did it end up impacting you and if you could go back in time how would you handle it differently?

I can’t say I’ve ever been bullied into making a major financial decision that I regretted, but I’ve had people try to strong arm me or bully me into making financial decisions that weren’t right for me. The example that first comes to mind (and most infuriates me) is when I was car shopping several years back. I was 25 at the time, and still in the military. I was thinking about buying a used BMW and I found two fairly comparable models in terms of year and mileage, but there was a large price difference.

I asked the salesman at the dealership with the more expensive car if they were willing to come down on the sticker price, and he acted as though he would be doing me a favor if he sold me the car for sticker price! Then he pulled all the standard tricks, the four-square model, talking trades, financing, etc. My response to his charade was to ask him for a firm price on the vehicle, and then we could work out the other details. Of course, he wouldn’t name a price.

He practically called me a liar when I quoted the sale price of the similar car (same year, similar miles, a new set of brakes, and a few thousand dollars cheaper) at the nearby BMW dealership. He stopped short of actually using the word liar, but he said I must have read the number incorrectly, there were hidden fees, they would rip me off on my trade in, or a dozen other reasons.

As I was getting up to leave he asked me to stay and he brought his manager in to talk prices with me. His manager claimed he was an Army veteran and he would treat me right. He didn’t. It was more of the same, and he too practically called me a liar when I quoted the price of the comparable vehicle. But since we were both veterans, he decided he would “hook me up with a deal” on their car and he knocked $500 off the price and handed me a sheet of paper to sign indicating it was a done deal. He tried the bullying tactic with me again and I got up and walked out. They called me multiple times over the next few days until I told them I bought the other BMW.

In the end I actually bought a Mazda, but I wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction!

I don’t respond well to strong arm tactics or high pressure sales. My time is just too short, and my self-respect too high. But I guess some people do respond to these tactics, because they continue to occur.

The only thing I would have done differently would have been to leave the dealer ship much sooner.

To tie these two questions together, I think the most important thing to remember is to be assertive with your money and your financial decisions. There will always be someone out there looking to take advantage of you in some way or another.  It’s up to you to be proactive and be on the lookout.

---

TradeKing Promotion $100 Signup Bonus

This month’s TradeKing promotion earns you $100 for opening a new account with the online broker. The number of people using the online brokerage has been growing quickly over the last few years, not due just to the TradeKing promotions but also because they make it cheaper and easier for their customers to invest their money in a number of ways.

Low Trading Commissions

With $4.95 trades and $0.65 per option contract and no account minimums TradeKing is one of the best options when it comes to low cost trading commissions.  Of course the TradeKing bonus where you earn a $100 signup bonus don’t hurt either, basically they’re equivalent to 20 free stock trades.

Options Trading Education

Low cost trades have an impact on your returns but TradeKing also offers a ton of trader education videos and webinars on stocks, bonds, and options that can help you with your investment decisions.  I’ve gone through the first few options trading webinars and have been working my way through their Options PlayBook, written by their options expert, Brian Overby.

Another kind of trading education are the forums and groups, called the Trader Network, where you can interact with the experts who do the webinars, as well as other TradeKing members.
If you’re looking for ideas and strategies for your portfolio or even to understand some of the concepts the pros use to analyze and evaluate their investments you can get answers in the forums. I haven’t taken advantage of this feature myself but this promotion reminds me I need to spend some time there.

If you don’t have a TradeKing account and want to try out their training and trader’s network you can earn the $100 bonus by signing up here.

Online Stock Trading Tools

Another feature I haven’t made good use of yet are their calculators, reports, and screens.  For example, here are some of the tools I’ve been meaning to spend more time with:

• MarketGrader Research Reports
• Probability & Profit and Loss Calculators
• Stock and Option Screeners
• Technical Analysis Tools

TradeKing also provides the Maxit Tax Manager to help sort things out with your accountant or tax software come tax time.

Customer Service

Those kind of tools are something you’d expect of any online brokerage but one cool thing about TradeKing is that they’re willing to help you out with questions you have about them.  Their online broker chat option lets you ask questions when you’re stuck or trying to figure something out; I’ve also gotten fast email responses to my inquiries.

I’ve never called in so I can’t speak to their telephone hold times but SmartMoney and Kiplinger’s rated TradeKing tops for customer service in recent online broker surveys.

TradeKing Promotion

The TradeKing promotion runs through the end of the month, after you open an account with $2,500 and make your first 3 trades, you’ll earn the $100 bonus.  There’s no promotion code needed but you do have to sign up through the following promotion link to earn the bonus – Click Here for Bonus

---

Saving Big Money in the Big City

Whether you are moving to the big city, embarking on a journey of a lifetime, or simply visiting for a few days, you should know that there are many ways to save money while fully enjoying the benefits of city life.  This post will explore some of the ways you can save money when visiting or living in a big city.

Find a Roommate

Obviously this only applies to those making the big move.  Finding a roommate means cutting down on your monthly costs while possibly living in a nicer place than you could on your own.  In some cities–New York comes to mind–it may be impossible to live “downtown” or even “near the town” without earning an extremely high salary or being willing to take on a roommate or two.

For those of you just visiting for a day or two, the same theory applies…travel as a group so costs can be split and group rates, where applicable, will apply.   There are also some websites devoted to helping people find apartments rather than hotels for extended trips or vacations.

Public Transportation:

Be smart, taxis are convenient but also costly.  Become familiar with local bus routes and any underground transportation that might be available to you.  If you are staying for longer periods of time, spring for a multi-ride card as opposed to paying each individual fare…you’ll save in the long run…on time and money.  Most of all–WALK.  That’s one of the biggest benefits of living in a big city.

Free entertainment

Major cities boast cultural experiences and many of them are free.  Think movies in the park, gallery openings, Sunday museums and local sporting events.  Take in the sights and sounds without the cost by researching city websites.  Most offer calendars with upcoming events, many of which are free to the public.

Passes

Many museums, theaters and venues offer memberships with reduced rates.  Also, numerous cities offer City Passes that, for a flat purchase price, include admission to multiple city attractions at drastically cheaper prices.  A City Pass is also a convenient way to experience a city because they often include a list of every location it is accepted, many of which you might not of known about or had thought of trying.

Car share programs

Car share programs are popping up across the country.  The central idea is that owning a car and paying car insurance and parking fees are astronomical for someone living in a major city (and likely not using their car all that often anyway).  The alternative…sell your car and join a car share program.  Each is run a little differently but most are either pay as you drive or pay a monthly fee.  You can go to any pick-up location, use a car and return it whenever you are finished, paying for the gas you use.  Drop-offs/pick-ups are scattered throughout the city, making travel convenient.

Part time job

A part time job does not have to be just for the money–or too help defray those big-city expenses.   Many people work because of a specific benefit it provides them.  Can’t afford a gym membership? Get a part time job at the local gym in exchange for a membership.  Need work-appropriate clothes?  Take on a part time job at your favorite clothing store, pending it offers great employee discounts.

Free Wi-fi

Coffee shops, libraries, ball-parks, pretty much everywhere offers free WiFi.  Take advantage of it when you are out and about.  You might find that between internet access at work and around the city, you may be able to forgo that costly monthly internet bill.

Conclusion

So, whether you are touring a big city or making a life changing move, experiencing all that your city has to offer does not mean you have to break the bank.  Take advantage of the programs sponsored by the city for the public.  Become a smart traveler.  Or work for benefits other than money.  In the end, you will be left with wonderful experiences and hopefully a little money in your wallet.

Other than my years in college, I’ve mostly been a boring suburbanite myself, so feel free to add some comments about ways to save money in the city, that I may have inadvertently left out or failed to address.

---

Interview Series – Go To Retirement

If you’ve ever been to a conference before, you know it’s kind of neat to get a chance to talk to the speakers afterwards and pick their brain.  Usually the people who speak at conference are not only knowledgable but more importantly enjoy talking about their area of expertise and sharing their stories and insights.

This week I’m starting with Mark Patterson of Go To Retirement to kick off a series of short interviews with speakers at the upcoming Financial Blogger Conference.  His site focuses on the issues people face as they go through retirement planning and try to figure out what that phase of life will be like and how to prepare for it.  Mark also shares his personal approach for planning for retirement income over at Fail Safe Retirement.

I didn’t ask the speakers questions relating to their presentations because you may not care about things like the “Intellectual Property Aspects of Blogging” or the many other conference topics that will be covered.  Instead I asked all the speakers the same two questions.  I think they’re general enough that we should get a wide range of answers, hopefully some that are helpful examples to you.  Here they are:

1) Describe a time that a person or company tried to take advantage of you financially and what you did to stop them.

15 years ago we applied for a combined construction/permanent loan to finance the construction of the house we now live in.  We already owned the lot but were paying interest on the lot loan. 

After 6 weeks of “we are working on it” responses to my request for approval of the loan, I escalated my concerns up the chain of command.  I was finally told by a bank official that “we don’t make construction/mortgage loans in situations where the lot is already owned by the applicant.”  This apparently was a bank policy. 

It made no sense to me but either way I was furious about not being told that by the loan originator when we applied weeks earlier. We immediately applied for a loan at another bank and were approved in 48 hours. Meanwhile, I demanded that the first bank pay us the $800+ in loan interest it cost for us to wait around for 6 weeks while they said nothing.

When they refused, I sued the bank under a variety of legal theories. Soon thereafter, they paid us our lost interest plus court costs.

2) Describe a time you were bullied into a financial decision (by a person or a company).  How did it end up impacting you and if you could go back in time how would you handle it differently?

It is very hard to bully me about money but 6 years ago we installed new HVAC systems in our home. We were offered a 10 year warranty on the equipment.

When the installation was complete and the final bill presented, I discovered that the so-called ‘warranty” was actually an extra-charge maintenance agreement that required annual maintenance (at additional cost) of the equipment. I should have raised an objection then and there but rolled over and paid it.

If I had to do it over again, I would have insisted on an actual warranty as it was explained to me, not a maintenance agreement. Now, I am super-skeptical about any promises of long-term warranties and cross-examine the salesman to be sure it is not a maintenance agreement in disguise.

Thanks to Mark for sharing his experiences!  It’s not always easy to look back on something you regret and talk about it …. but I’m glad Mark did.  Now if you ever run into a similar situation you’ll know to ask more questions.

---

Best Cloud Data Storage For Your Money

The best cloud services for your data was the topic of a recent research article by Gizmodo best way to store stuff in the cloud.

They provided a great summary chart of the various cloud storage services they reviewed and how much data you can store in each.  The thing I was looking for was a way to easily search them by price instead of by available storage. So I enhanced the charts I used in my credit card bonus comparison post and put the cloud services into another table where you can filter the services based on a combination of cost and space available.  Here’s an example of how you can use the filter.

In the filter example image above, I set the Cost slider from $0-40 and the space slider from 20–30GB to find the services that offer at 20–30GB of space for under $40 a year.

Checkout the cloud storage comparison table below, play with the cost and storage filters to find the right mix for you. It only shows 10 services at once, you can use the arrow below the table to scroll back and forth if your current filter settings return more than 10 cloud data providers. You can also click the column headers to sort the options. The default view is showing all the free cloud storage options first.

Cloud Space vs Storage Price
You know what they say about how long it takes to complete a task, the time necessary will expand to fill the amount of time available.  Well, I think something similar applies to how much storage space you need to save your data. The less you have, the more carefully you manage it, the more you have, the more casual you are about filling it up.

It is nice to not have to worry about running out of space, but I also like to keep the cost in mind when choosing a service. I know when comparing prices and space my first instinct is to sign up for a plan with more space than I think I’ll need.  That way I won’t run into a space limitation at an inconvient time and have to hassle with upgrading or changing services.

On the other hand, I hate paying for something that I’m not using.  Granted strage space isn’t that expensive but recurring expenses have a way of creeping up on you over time and adding up to more than you’d planned to spend. Of course it depends on what you’re using the space for – whether it’s your only copy of the files or its serving as a backup.

Obviously, you don’t want to cheap out and not have enough space for what you’re storing – particulary if it’s something really important or is your only copy. So if you’re short on space and end up not storing everything you could cost yourself a lot more than you save on the cheaper plan. The time and cost of recovering your files can be pretty high.

Best Cloud Data Storage

That’s one thing I liked about the Gizmodo article, they picked out their favorite cloud storage servcies based on how you’re using the cloud. The budget winner was Google Docs (if you’re looking for the most space for your money), the free winner was Microsoft SkyDrive (25GB at no charge), and for ease of use they liked Dropbox. Their favorite overall was SugarSync – 5 GB free, good features, and reasonable prices.

Hopefully the chart above will let you filter down the services to the price and amount of storage space you’re looking for.  If nothing else, I’d recommend signing up for one of the free services and giving it a try.  The main thing I hope you take away from this post is that you have lots of options and the pricing on most of them is quite reasonable.  It’s much better to spend a little time now and backup your data in the cloud than to lose it to a corrupt hard drive or a broken mobile device a few months down the road.

Cloud Upgrades & Free Trials

Something else to keep in mind is that many of the services that do provide free online storage make it easy for you to upgrade to a paid account if you find yourself needing more disk space than the free version offers.  This is nice because it lets you stay with the same service, you don’t have to spend time opening a new account and re-uploading your data.

If you’re using a free service then this doesn’t apply, if you want to try out one of the paid cloud storage companies, most of them offer a free trial or discounted first month.

---

Page 49 of 190« First«...102030...4748495051...607080...»Last »