Archive for September, 2006

The Finance Journey is participating in the following carnivals this week:

Carnival of Personal Finance #65 at NCN

Carnival of Real Estate at Real Estate Tomato

Enjoy!

My fiance’s brother is in the midst of a divorce. Basically his wife packed up everything and left for her hometown in California leaving him with hardly anything except his son, so he was forced to move out of their place and move into a smaller one. He said he was really financially strapped and asked us if we had any spare furniture, clothes, or food in our pantry that we weren’t going to eat. So naturally we gave him all the furniture we weren’t really using, extra food in our pantry, and went to the stores and bought him a bunch of stuff for his new place (bath towels, kitchen plates, silverware, etc).

So we go up to help him move in and drop off the stuff this weekend, walk into his new place, and sitting on the TV stand we gave him is a brand new $1000+ LCD TV with a $500 surround sound system. I guess some people have their priorities right.

Career Journal has an article up with some advice if you are thinking about switching careers. The five main tips are:

1. Prepare to take a step back.
2. Show how your skills are a good fit.
3. Focus your resume on your talents.
4. Look the part.
5. Be ready to discuss your career change.

Some interesting points, I have been thinking about going back for my MBA as of late because there seems to be only so far I can get as a computer analyst. For me taking the step back would be the hardest part, as I’ve gotten used to the lifestyle my salary has afforded me now, but I suppose it would the best in the end.

Sunrocket VOIP is running another 1/2 price sale. For $99 you get unlimited calling to the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico for a whole year. Make the deal even sweeter by going through FatCash at Fatwallet to get an additional $20 off. Here’s how it works:

• Go to the Fatwallet Cashback area. Click on the $20.00 Cash Back Rebate Available!” link.

• Once you’ve reached SunRockets homepage through this link, copy and paste the following link into your browser window: http://www.sunrocket.com/sign_up/signup.do?chn=2

Thats it! You should be able to get the deal for $99, then also get your $20 in FatCash as well. Excellent deal for 1 year of service - that makes it about $6.58 per month for unlimited calling.

Here are some more of the details:

• Equipment fee is $39.95, but is fully refundable if you cancel for any reason (as long as you return the equipment).
• There is no setup fee or shipping cost. SR includes a postage-prepaid label in case service has to be cancelled for any reason and equipment has to be returned.
• There is a 31-day no obligation trial period. If service is cancelled before the 31 days are up, you get all your money back.

I personally have Voicepulse VOIP service, but have heard good things about SunRock. So if you are looking for a deal on phone service this is hard to beat.

NOTE: This is not a referal or advertisement, I am not making any money off this.

Last week while I was playing with our dog he had a little accident that required am unscheduled trip to the vets office. He hurt his paw and would not put any weight on it. After an xray we were releaved that it was only a sprain and he should be better in a few days. The cost of an emergency visit with an xray and a perscription for some antiinflamitory puills was $160. The followup visit a week later set us back another $45.

Certainly $205 is worth it in my eyes for a healthy dog, but the cost sure add up quick. Here is a pic of our pug Parker.

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My employer runs their 401k plan through T. Rowe Price this is where the majority of my retirement funds are held. Like most retirement plans ours offers a limited selection of funds, and I decided to write a breakdown of the investment choices and my personal allocations.

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TDAmeritrade is running a new promo for a free 2GB iPod Nano if you open a new account and deposit at least 10k in it. Gotta keep it there for 9 months.

Click here for the link.

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I talked previously about my For Sale By Owner experience with my townhouse. Well, I also created a website for my home with all the major information I thought was important to a buyer and thought I would share that as well.

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The Festival of Frugality #38 is being hosted over at Queercents. Lots of good budget living reading.

The Carnival of Personal Finance #64 is over at Aridni with more articles than you can shake a stick at.

Happy reading!

There is a very interesting article in todays Boston Globe entitled ‘Qualification: Must have a good credit history‘. Apparently a rising trend among employers is to check your credit history and use that as part of the qualification process for new hires. From the article.

LaToya Horton was temping at a management consulting firm in Boston last January when it offered her a full-time job as a clerk. Then, the firm said it needed to check her credit. Horton, 30, of Dorchester, didn’t get the job after her credit report showed $18,000 in deferred student loans.

How far is too far with reguards to your privacy and credit history? Full article text below the cut.

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Hope all my fellow Americans had a fantastic Labor Day weekend, going to do a Tuesday editition of Posts of the Week since yesterday was a holiday.

• Get Rich Slowely has a very comprehensive article ‘The Only Credit Card Guide You’ll Ever Need‘ which is a great primer for anyone thinking about getting or with credit cards.
• Money, Matter and More Musings has an good security peice entitled ‘Computer Security 101 for the Financially Enlightened‘. Though I just read another article on the relative ineffectiveness of personal firewalls, most of the other suggestions are heads on (and hey the firewall software he recommends is free so I guess its worth its price).
• Consummerism Commentary writes about why he likes ‘Consumer Reports’ Unique Approach‘. Basically they take the same route of the average Joe to get the product so they do not receive suped up tester models.
• Investorial has an article titled ‘Where Are Vanguard Funds Going?‘. I personally am a huge Vanguard fanboy so anything related I find interesting.

According to this page over at ING they will soon offer a high interest checking account.  No fees and no minimum balances makes this a pretty good deal.  The 3% APY doesn’t match Presidentials, but they have a 1k minimum and require a payroll direct deposit so its not really in the same league.

More reading on  this.

After being bent over for an unexpected $300+ car repair / maintanence bill today I was pleasantly suprised to come home to a $2000 check from my former home’s mortgage company with my escrow refund. I guess technically thats just my money that was sitting an account doing nothing that I’m getting back, but it makes me feel better.

Taxable Accounts:

$7,889.23 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account
$12,748.42 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments
$4,630.00 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone
$661.49 - Stocks - Scottrade
$2,510.20 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect

$28,439.34 TOTAL

Retirement Savings:

$11,481.23 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard
$3,168.00 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade
$28,383.56 - 401K - T. Rowe Price

$43,032.79 TOTAL

Debts

$3,674.62 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%)
$8,324.00 - Credit Card BT - Citi (0%)

Summary

Its been a tough month. New home purchase and all the expenses that entails hurt my taxable funds, as well as the freefall of one of my larger stock holdings which I stubornly refused to get out of (and still haven’t).

Monthly Goals

This figures to be a tough month as well. My fiance is in a transition between careers and isn’t going to start her new job until midway through the month, so I will be paying most of the bills this month. We have been slowely integrating our finances together, and I emphasize slowely. Monthly goal right now is just to stay about even with this month.