Archive for May, 2007

Back to reality. I’ve returned from my very relaxing honeymoon and once I get everything at home back in order will start up some new writing.

CNN is running an interesting quiz about money and ethics. Its basically a series of questions evaluating how you would handle certain situations.

CNN’s Money & Ethics: How You Stack Up

I personally got a 25 out of 30. I actually expected it to be lower, for question #1 anytime a contractor comes over I specifically have cash on hand and usually will ask if there is a ‘cash discount’.

How do you stack up?

There is a lot of interesting talk going around the PF community about giving money to your parents once you are established in your career. Here are some more detailed recent posts I have read:

• Him at Make Love, Not Debt
• Mapgirl at Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge
• Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist

It seems that its ingrained in Asian culture particularly that the children will take care of the parents in retirement as appreciation for raising them. The children feel its necessary to send back what most of the comments indicate is something in the range of $200-$500 a month. This is even if the parents do not need it, or the children are on the border of poverty.

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Now through May 13, 2007 you can get 12% off a single item during your instore purchase at Best Buy. All you need is a free rewards zone membership to get the full 12%, otherwise if you do not have / want a membership you get 10% off.

Best Buy Coupon

Fine Print:

10% or 12% off any single item1 from the following categories:

TVs & More: TVs $399 and up • DVD players and recorders • TiVo® and DIRECTV® hardware • receivers, shelf systems,
speakers and home theater systems. Also valid at Magnolia Home Theater®.

Computer Accessories: DVD-RW drives • flash and external hard drives • notebook accessories • printers $149 & up •
scanners $99 & up • computer networking • computer speakers, mice and keyboards • PC cameras • PC gaming controllers •
digital recorders $99 & up • surge protectors • computer flash memory • computer cables • graphic and sound cards •
computer software • blank digital media and blank video media • ink cartridges • printer docks • paper

Cameras & Accessories: digital cameras $279 & up • digital camcorders $279 & up • digital camera accessories •
blank mini-DVD media • blank video media • camcorder accessories • camcorder batteries • blank camcorder media •
premium photo services

Music Players & Accessories: MP3 players and accessories • car audio • satellite radio hardware • musical instruments •
CD/DVD storage

Phones & Accessories: phone cards • cordless phones • answering machines • landline phone accessories • 2-way radios •
cellular phone accessories • pay-as-you-go phones

Appliances & More: major and small appliances • shavers • vacuums • microwaves • batteries • toys • mobile electronics •
navigation hardware

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Excludes Zune® devices; Bose®; JBL and Shure MP3 player accessories;
DIRECTV® service; Blu-ray and HD DVD players; digital SLR cameras; Apple® products; the Dyson DC18; video game
hardware and accessories; satellite radio service; Cinema Systems; HP ink; high-definition camcorders; pay-as-yougo-
phone cards; cellular phones; Roland, Boss and Edirol musical instruments; digital music services and download
cards; special order, clearance, demo and open-box items; Gift Cards; taxes; Magnolia Home Theater products: Bose®,
SpeakerCraft®, Sonos, Vienna Acoustics, Tivoli Audio, MartinLogan, BDI furniture, installation services, Magnolia
Guaranteed Performance Agreement and special order merchandise

Best Buy Coupon

I’ve written in the past about the virtues of prepaid phones for those who do not use their cell phone for millions of minutes per month. My wife has her cell service through TMO to Go which is T-Mobiles service.

Currently your friendly local Target is running an excellent deal for TMO To Go. You get a $100 airtime card and a Nokia 6030 phone for $100 (basically getting the $40 phone for free). With the $100 card each minute is 10 cents and they do not expire for 1 year, so you will have 1000 minutes plus another 30 that come free with the phone.

Something to consider if T-Mobile has decent service in your area.

T-Mobile Coverage Map

There is an interesting article about a man named Andrew Cicero who won a 5.5 million dollar lottery jackpot in 1995. Through a series of bad luck and poor financial advice he is now living in a small apartment on his pension and social security checks.

The story goes that he was receiving yearly payment on his winnings, but eventually decided to sell the payouts to a firm in exchange for a lump sum of $2 million. He then hired Smith-Barney to manage his money for him and heres where things took a turn for the worse. From the article:

He alleges that within a few months, the Smith-Barney advisers had 98 percent of his money invested in individual stocks, substantially technology companies.

The year was 2000, which would prove a spectacularly bad time to sink one’s entire fortune into tech stocks. Cicero’s lawyer has alleged the advisers were “breathtakingly irresponsible” to put a lottery winner’s windfall wholly into individual stocks.

He ended up losing something around $600,000 or more during the tech stock bust. He is now suing Smith-Barney for mismanaging his money with a court case due this year. He also was fined $240,000 by the IRS for misclassifying his lump sum buyout as capital-gains income.

Please remind me not to use his financial advisers or accountant if I ever win the lottery.

Lottery Story

Taxable Accounts:

$13,193.61 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account
$15,022.52 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments
$5,968.07 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone
$3,168.87 - Stocks - Zecco
$2,595.48 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect

$39,948.55 TOTAL

Retirement Savings:

$15,520.31 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard
$2,161.92 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade
$43,556.03 - 401K - T. Rowe Price

$61,238.26 TOTAL

Debts

$3,345.15 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%)
$7,220.00 - Credit Card BT - Discover (0%)
$7,438.00 - Credit Card BT - Citi (0%)

$18,003.15 TOTAL

Housing / Automobiles

$269,130.08 - Mortgage - Countrywide
$339,900.00 - Approximate Home Value
$10,978.00 - Approximate Car Value - Edmunds.com

$81,747.92- TOTAL (Approximate Equity)

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The wedding went very well this weekend. We were married here in upstate New York in front of 130 members of our family and friends. The party was a blast and we had a wonderful time.

Unfortunately a good friend of mine gets married this coming weekend, and then my wifes sister (man it feels so weird to say wife… and also I guess thats also my sister in law now) so we aren’t going on our honeymoon for a few weeks. I guess its a good thing, gives us some time to get our affairs in order before we rush away. I can’t imagine the rush if we had done so the day after the wedding. For the curious we are going to the island of St. Lucia in the southern Caribbean.