The table below shows when your federal tax refund should be deposited in your bank account or your check mailed if you efiled and your refund was accepted within the dates listed.

Happy New Year everyone! December was a pretty interesting month financially for us with some large swings.

First off, the refinance on our home was complete and our interest rate is now 4.875% which is pretty exciting. The mortgage total went up because we rolled the closing costs into the loan rather than paying them out of pocket. By my calculations the refi should pay for itself in about 18 months. Also, due to the timing of the close we ended up not having to make our December mortgage payment which is part of the reason for the cash reserve increase.

The market was also up this month which bumped up the retirement portfolio a bit. Was also to pay down a bit on the credit cards so overall I was pretty pleased with the month.

Monthly Goals

Going to have to pay off the holiday bills which is always tough. We kept it somewhat under control this year. Would like to increase my cash reserves up to about $18,000 which is where I like to see it at.

I thought I would take some time to look at the interest rates of some of the top as well as the more popular savings solutions.

So if you are looking I have found in previous years that Aldi’s market has the cheapest prices on flowers for the occasion. This year they have Dozen Premium Long Stemmed Roses for $16.99, and then assorted other flower bouquets for $6.99.

I have gotten flowers from there each of the previous 2 years on v-day and have always been happy with the quality. At least I can see them here instead of just getting whatever some dot com sends (which I have always had back luck with).

Aldi’s Store Locator

Its been quite a plunge the last few weeks, almost half a point reduction in the rate. I still am holding my cash reserves in this account, but probably one more significant drop and I will seriously be considering transferring. In the meantime I will keep my eye out for the higher rate accounts out there that hopefully are more stable.

Dollar Savings Direct

Not entirely unexpected as the USPS has increased the cost each of the last 3 years. They lost $2.8 billion in 2008, and unless there is some kind of dramatic turnaround they are expected to post an even larger loss this year. They have even asked Congress to take away the legislation that requires them to deliver mail 6 days a week.

You can continue to buy forever stamps at 42 cents until May 10, which will still be good when the rate increases with no additional postage.

Below is a look at how the prices have stamps have increased over the last 20 years. As you can see, the updates have been more frequent but generally have been less dramatic than they were in the past.

AP Article: Stamp prices to go up 2-cents in May

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/usps-increases-stamps-to-44-cents/feed/ 1 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/the-economy-has-hit-my-workplace/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/the-economy-has-hit-my-workplace/#comments Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:35:30 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=670 This week my employer sent out notice that they are pulling back some of our existing benefits. So far they are saying its just a preventative measure, and no layoffs are planned.

I can’t say its a big shock to me. Seems like every workplace is cutting back, and I would rather have them take these measures than take more drastic ones in the near future. And our CEO has been saying since the beginning of the year that things will be tight with the way businesses are spending this year.

• No More 401k Match – Our company has always had a 4% match on our 401k contributions. As of this week they will no longer be matching anything. This has me thinking about starting up a standard IRA since without the match there is no incentive for continue to fund their plan which has limited choices (at least until I get over the $5,000 limit).

• No Performance Based Raises – We will not be getting any raises based on our yearly evaluations, so my pay will be flat this year. This is probably the most disappointing change for me since I am one of the stronger members of my team and usually get a pretty good raise each year.

• No Vaction Rollover – Previously we were allowed to roll over 5 vacation days a year (non-accumulating, so not 5 this year, 10 next, etc). I’m actually not really sure how this saves the company money, but it just means I have to use 5 more vacation days this year. Personally I think they have been wanting to get rid of this for a couple years and are able to use this as an excuse.

They say they are hoping these changes are temporary and they will be able to reinstate them for next year.

While disappointing, the only other bank I see offering a significantly higher rate is Broadway Federal (4.08% APY) – however that appears to be a promo rate which won’t last. There are some other rewards checking accounts with higher rates, but you have to jump through too many hoops for my taste (10 debit card transactions a month, direct deposit, sacrifice first born…).

So I will be sticking with Dollar Savings for the time being.

Most of the time I do not close my old accounts in case the rate goes back up there. However I have found that usually when it goes down a significant amount, it never comes back up. So in the interest of simplicity I have decided its time to go through my checking and savings accounts and weed some of them down.

Accounts I’m Keeping

• Charles Schwab Investor Checking (1.00% APY) – While the rate has plummeted since I first opened this account last year I am using it as our main checking account. It would be a huge headache to switch this one over to a different bank. Plus it has some pretty decent perks which keep me around – ATM rebates, free checks, free prepaid envelopes for deposits, and a pretty good website.

• Dollar Savings Direct (3.5% APY) – This one has also dropped a bit since I opened it, but remains one of the higher savings accounts out there. It will remain my main savings account.

• HSBC Free Checking / Online Savings (0% / 2.45% APY) – I like to have a local bank just for certain situations. Since Schwab doesn’t have a local branch I will keep HSBC around as a backup.

Accounts To Close

• Countrywide Bank SavingsLink (1.65% APY) – This was my latest main savings account, but the rate dropped like a rock when the credit crisis started. I don’t see this going back up anytime soon.

• Emigrant Direct (2.40% APY) – This is one I had quite some time ago. The rate has not been competitive in years so I think its time to abandon ship.
• KeyBank Express Checking (0% APY) – This is another account I haven’t used in years. I no longer have any checks from here, just haven’t gotten around to closing it out.

Debating

• ING Direct Orange Savings (2.20%) – This is another account that has not been competitive in quite a long time. However they have a great website, and also a pretty good referral program I may use at some point.

My goal is to have these accounts closed out by the end of the month.

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/reducing-the-number-of-open-banking-accounts/feed/ 1 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/my-best-investment-of-2008/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/my-best-investment-of-2008/#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:00:46 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=549 This winter has been pretty brutal here in the Northeast. So the best investment I made for myself last summer was purchasing a snowblower.

Okay… so maybe a depreciating item isn’t an investment (that would be like thinking of your car as an investment). However those of you who saw my 2008 recap know I didn’t make too many positive investments last year, plus the time and strain I have saved this winter has more than made up for its purchase price.

It used to take me over an hour or more to shovel out my driveway when we got a moderate snowfall. Now with the snowblower that has been cut down to about 15 minutes.

Getting A Good Deal

Instead of purchasing a new snowblower, I decided to buy used. I used Yahoo Pipes to craft a custom Craigslist search that included some different terms (snow, snowblower, snowthrower…). I was then able to keep track of this search through Google Reader so I would be updated when a new one went for sale.

I eventually found one over the Summer from someone who was moving South. It was only a few years old, still under warranty, and they were asking less than 1/2 of the price of a new one.

Of course it took me a month or 2 of waiting to get that deal. I often find with Craigslist if you are looking for something immediately then you usually end up overpaying – but if you are patient, the right deal will come.

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/my-best-investment-of-2008/feed/ 1 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/zecco-increases-min-balance-for-free-trading-to-25k/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/zecco-increases-min-balance-for-free-trading-to-25k/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:07:50 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=567 Sad news from my favorite free online brokerage. While their homepage is still touting free trades for balances of $2,500, once I logged into my account the following information appeared.

Effective March 1, 2009, you will need to a $25,000 balance to get your 10 free trades with Zecco. Otherwise they will credit 10 free trades for every 25 trades.

At only $4.50 per trade under this balance, Zecco is still pretty cheap in the land of online brokerages. But its hard to go up from free.



]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/zecco-increases-min-balance-for-free-trading-to-25k/feed/ 5 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/irs-efile-when-will-i-get-my-refund-direct-deposit-or-check-2009/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/irs-efile-when-will-i-get-my-refund-direct-deposit-or-check-2009/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:00:06 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=519 For those of you like me wondering when you can expect to receive your refund direct depot or check once you efile the IRS has a handy publication 2043 with this information.

The table below shows when your federal tax refund should be deposited in your bank account or your check mailed if you efiled and your refund was accepted within certain dates.

Transmitted and accepted (by 11:00 am) between…	Direct Deposit Sent	Paper Check Mailed
Jan 16 and Jan 22, 2009	Jan 30, 2009	Feb 6, 2009
Jan 22 and Jan 29, 2009	Feb 6, 2009	Feb 13, 2009
Jan 29 and Feb 5, 2009	Feb 13, 2009	Feb 20, 2009
Feb 5 and Feb 12, 2009	Feb 20, 2009	Feb 27, 2009
Feb 12 and Feb 19, 2009	Feb 27, 2009	Mar 6, 2009
Feb 19 and Feb 26, 2009	Mar 6, 2009	Mar 13, 2009
Feb 26 and Mar 5, 2009	Mar 13, 2009	Mar 20, 2009
Mar 5 and Mar 12, 2009	Mar 20, 2009	Mar 27, 2009
Mar 12 and Mar 19, 2009	Mar 27, 2009	Apr 3, 2009
Mar 19 and Mar 26, 2009	Apr 3, 2009	Apr 10, 2009
Mar 26 and Apr 2, 2009	Apr 10, 2009	Apr 17, 2009
Apr 2 and Apr 9, 2009	Apr 17, 2009	Apr 24, 2009
Apr 9 and Apr 16, 2009	Apr 18, 2008	Apr 25, 2008
Apr 16 and Apr 23, 2009	May 1, 2009	May 8, 2009

 

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/irs-efile-when-will-i-get-my-refund-direct-deposit-or-check-2009/feed/ 1033 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/taxes-federal-and-state-efile-for-1190-with-taxact/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/taxes-federal-and-state-efile-for-1190-with-taxact/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:21:48 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=493 TaxAct is one of the cheapest options out there for filing your taxes. They offer FREE federal filing, and then charge $13.95 for a state efile if you chose to do so (you can chose just to efile your federal taxes through them for free if you wish).

However, if you use the link below you will get 30% off your purchase making it only $11.90. This is the best deal I’ve seen out there for both Federal and State Efile. I’ve used TaxAct in the past and their website is pretty good… maybe not quite as good as TurboTax but the price difference is worth it in my opinion.

TaxAct – 30% off

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/taxes-federal-and-state-efile-for-1190-with-taxact/feed/ 0 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/dollar-savings-direct-lowers-rate/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/dollar-savings-direct-lowers-rate/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:15:45 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=485 Last month I was disappointed by the decline in interest rate on my Countrywide Savings Account (which is now all the way down to 1.75% now) . I decided to switch to Dollar Savings Direct who was offering a 4.0% APY online savings account.

Well, last week Dollar Savings Direct lowered their rate to 3.5% APY.

While disappointing, I can’t say it was unexpected. Its still just about the highest savings rate out there even after dropping half a point. Seems like I made the right move switching when I did as their rate is 2x what Countrywide is currently at, whose rates became uncompetitive when their banking division was swallowed by Bank of America. I plan on continuing to use Dollar Savings.

Dollar Savings Direct

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/dollar-savings-direct-lowers-rate/feed/ 0 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/starting-to-use-yodlees-budgeting-features/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/starting-to-use-yodlees-budgeting-features/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:32:22 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=460 It seems like every time I try to use Quicken or MS Money to track my expenses I always end up giving them up after a few weeks. I always find that they can’t automatically update some of my accounts and I have to manually import the data in. That combined with having to open yet another program always makes me go back to just using Yodlee Moneycenter to track my finances.

In the past I always just used Yodlee to see what bills were due, what the balances on my accounts were, and what transactions I had made. This year I decided I would try out some of the budgeting features on the website and see how well I could track those. I know they won’t have all the bells and whistles of the standalone programs, but I have been using Yodlee for about 4 years now almost exclusively so I know I won’t be getting rid of it anytime soon and that it can handle all my accounts.

Using Sub Categories For Custom Budgeting

When I dug into it I actually never knew after all this time that you could setup custom sub categories. This helps me to align some of the default categories with things more in line with my lifestyle.

However, when it came to the actual budgeting of these things became a bit confusing. I setup 2 custom categories under General Merchandise – one for my discretionary spending and one for my wife. However when you go to the budgeting like in the below image… do I put the budget at the sub category level or the category level? The category level does not update with the totals from the sub category (I put that in).



After digging into it more, I realize you have to setup both the category goal, and the sub category goal which is the way I have done it above.

Overall Impressions

I only started this week so I’m not sure. There are some things you obviously lose when you go to a web interface, like I wish I could customize the look of the chart in the budget vs actual screen (my mortgage budget is so high that it makes small budget goals hard to read since it expands the scale so much). Overall though I think I am more likely to stick with it since I know I will keep using Yodlee.

If you want total control over the look and expenses, then its probably not for you and you should stick with Quicken, MS Money, or your Excel spreadsheet with 500 tabs and 20 pivot tables. But I think its a pretty good alternative to those pricier software packages for the average user who doesn’t want to be so methodical or doesn’t want to track down their financial information in 20 different spots.

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/starting-to-use-yodlees-budgeting-features/feed/ 0 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/stuck-on-your-taxes-get-free-tax-help/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/stuck-on-your-taxes-get-free-tax-help/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:42:48 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=445 Started your return early this year but stuck on a section of your taxes?

From now until the end of January, Intuit’s TurboTax is offering a special promotion. If you go to their site via FreeTaxQuestion.com (which links up to the TurboTax site) between 7am-7pm Pacific time an actual human tax expect will call you within 24 hours to discuss your question.

The catch? They will only answer 1 question per phone # for the duration of the promotion. If you need more hep you will need to pay up. They also will only answer Federal tax questions for forms 1040 (personal) and 1065, 1120, or 1120S (business) – no State questions.

Seems like its at least worth a shot if you have one thing you are stuck on with your taxes.

FreeTaxQuestion.com

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/stuck-on-your-taxes-get-free-tax-help/feed/ 0 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-net-worth-recap-overview/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-net-worth-recap-overview/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:03:21 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=401 It was quite an up and down ride in 2008… mostly down for my finances.

It was a tumultuous year for the stock market that saw the Dow Jones drop 34%. It also has seen a credit crisis that is making it more difficult to borrow. Here are some of the ugly highlights for my finances this past year.

ASSETS

• Cash (-7.15%)
  My cash reserves did go down a bit but in my opinion are still in an acceptable position. In this economy I think that is a pretty good stockpile in case either my wife or I lose our jobs.
• Stocks (-36.15%)
  I took an absolute bloodbath in the market this year. I took (in hindsight) a terrible position in Citigroup at $22.96 and failed to bail out of my position in NovaStar Financial when I should have seen the writing on the wall. I did have a couple bright spots, but its definitely made me realize I need to have an earlier exit strategy for my investment.
• Retirement (-22.19%)
  This one is probably the most disheartening of all. I made almost $16,000 worth of contributions to my retirement accounts in 2008 and still was down $16,519.37 from January. So in reality this is more like -44% in actual performance if you remove the contributions.

DEBTS

• Mortgage (-2.18%) & Student Loans (-15.45%)
  I pretty much just made standard payments on my mortgage and student loans this year. I thought about refinancing my mortgage when rates were down in early 2008 but didn’t pull the trigger. Now with rates plummeting again hopefully 2009 I can lock in some more savings.
• Credit Cards (-3.60%)
  For years I have been unconcerned with this debt as the abundance of 0% credit card offers have made it easy to just bounce this around. However now with the looming credit crisis its getting harder to find those offers. I think I should have focused a bit harder on paying some of this down to get it to a level where I could bounce it around on 1 card instead of needing 2-3.

FINAL TALLY

So here are the actual numbers for 2008. Here’s to hoping for a better 2009!

			Jan-08	Jan-09
	ASSETS				$ DIFF	% DIFF
		CASH TOTAL	$27,241.30	$25,294.62	-$1,946.68	-7.15%
		STOCKS TOTAL	$24,579.14	$15,693.94	-$8,885.20	-36.15%
		BONDS TOTAL	$2,657.44	$2,760.96	$103.52	3.90%
		RETIREMENT TOTAL	$74,439.14	$57,919.77	-$16,519.37	-22.19%
		HOUSE & AUTOS	$348,964.00	$347,064.00	-$1,900.00	-0.54%
	TOTAL ASSETS		$477,881.02	$448,733.29	-$29,147.73	-6.10%
	DEBTS				$ DIFF	% DIFF
		MORTGAGE TOTAL	$265,478.35	$259,684.08	-$5,794.27	-2.18%
		LOAN TOTAL	$3,010.32	$2,545.18	-$465.14	-15.45%
		CREDIT CARD TOTAL	$48,630.46	$46,878.38	-$1,752.08	-3.60%
	TOTAL DEBTS		$317,119.13	$309,107.64	-$8,011.49	-2.53%
	NET WORTH		$160,761.89	$139,625.65	-$21,136.24	-13.15%

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-net-worth-recap-overview/feed/ 0 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/new-years-resolution-write-more/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/new-years-resolution-write-more/#comments Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:25:52 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=390 This year my new years resolution is to write more on the site. I have been extremely busy the last few months at work and have neglected this site for far too long.

Since I stopped writing so often as well I have been less in tune with my finances. This year I will try to put aside time to update the site 3 times a week at minumum.

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/new-years-resolution-write-more/feed/ 0 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/calculate-your-driving-cost-for-any-trip/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/calculate-your-driving-cost-for-any-trip/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:29:45 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=342 I came across a nifty little website today called Cost to Drive. It calculates the cost of gas for your car trip so you can get an idea of how much you will spend in gas for the journey.

You simply input your starting point, destination, and your car year/model and it will do the calculation for you. It uses the distance of google maps, the average mpg of your car type, and the average price of gas in that area. Its obviously not 100% accurate, and also on some trips I tried it did not factor in tolls (perhaps an idea for a future enhancement) which can certainly add up as well. But overall its a fun and easy tool to get a rough estimate of gas costs.

www.costtodrive.com

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/calculate-your-driving-cost-for-any-trip/feed/ 3 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-financial-goal-3-review-funding-roths/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-financial-goal-3-review-funding-roths/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:06:21 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=337 Once again looking back on our 5 financial goals for 2008. Our third goal for the year was:

3.) Fund at least $4,000 in our ROTH IRA’s
I have to admit, before purchasing our new home I was doing a lot better with the ROTH savings. I slacked in 2007 and even in 2008 $4,000 is less than I would like to commit but seems like realistically possible. That however means savings of about $333/mo which has not happened in January so we are already behind.

Overview

My wife and I currently have 2 separate ROTH IRA funds. My ROTH is through Vanguard and I have a direct deposit setup from my paycheck to deposit $75 there (biweekly). My wifes ROTH is through T. Rowe Price and she currently contributes $50 per month.

Goal Progress

So far this year we have contributed $1380 to our ROTH IRA’s. This represents progress of only 34.5% towards the goal for the year when we should be 75% there.

In order to meet our goal we will now have to contribute $873.33 per month for the rest of the year. This goal has become secondary to our debt reduction, so it was kind of thrown by the wayside. The way the market has been going lately it seems like we actually lucked out on this.

I was ready to admit defeat on this goal a quarter into the year, and now I’m so far off it seems I’ll be lucky if I hit 50% of the goal.

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-financial-goal-3-review-funding-roths/feed/ 1 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/beware-of-falling-savings-rates/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/beware-of-falling-savings-rates/#comments Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:10 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=332 With the recent downturn in the stock market, the fed has reacted by slashing interest rates. This has caused a number of banks to lower their APYs on savings accounts:
• WAMU lowered their savings account rate from 4.0% to 3.0%
• Schwab lowered the rate on Investor Checking from 3.0% to 2.2%
• ING Direct lowered their Orange Savings from 3.0% to 2.75%

I expect more cuts on their way, so if it hasn’t hit your account yet don’t be shocked when it does.

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/beware-of-falling-savings-rates/feed/ 0 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-financial-goal-2-review-paying-off-debt/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-financial-goal-2-review-paying-off-debt/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:08:51 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=325 This is the second checking of my 5 financial goals for 2008. The following is a recap of this goal:

2.) Pay Down 20% Of Our Non-Mortgage Debt
This is a pretty ambitious goal but I think we can do it. After the wedding and home purchase though we have quite a few assets our debt has been steadily increasing. I would like to get this completely eliminated within 3 years, and 20% will be a great start. Most of this debt is at 0% or other reasonable rates so that is why I am not overly worried about paying it all off before all else.

Starting Point

We started this year at a rather staggering sounding $148,240.40. The majority of this debt however is my wife’s student loan debt which is at a fairly low interest rate (3.25%) as well as on some 0% credit cards that have been lingering for a while.

Progress

So far this year the debt has been reduced to $122,836.94, which is a 17.14% decrease. The chart below illustrates the decrease so far:



At last update I was thinking 20% would be hit rather quickly and I should up the goal to 25%. Well, I’m at 17% with a few months to go. I think 20% is definitely within reach but 25% may be a little much with the Holidays coming up.

Overall I’m very pleased with the progress of this goal so far this year. I have made steady progress on it throughout the year and am looking forward to seeing it down to a more reasonable number next year.

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-financial-goal-2-review-paying-off-debt/feed/ 0 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-financial-goal-1-review-merging-finances/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-financial-goal-1-review-merging-finances/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:40:14 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=312 At the beginning of the year I had set 5 financial goals for 2008. Well now that we are 3/4 of the way through the year I wanted to take some time to reflect on this goals and see what progress has been made on them. As with life some priorities have changed and some goals are not as important now as they were.

The first goal was already recapped once this year. Today I’ll start with that one which was:

1.) Better Merge Our Finances
Since getting married last year, my wife and I still haven’t fully merged our finances. Part laziness, complexity and fear has kept us from doing so. I have been working so far this year on fixing this but it is still not done yet. It probably will take a few more months to get everything fully integrated.

Checking Account

This part of the goal I consider completely accomplished. We have completely switched all our checking to our joint Charles Schwab Investor Checking account. All paychecks are being deposited here, and all bills are being paid out of here. Checklist for this is as follows:

• Pay all utility and house related bills from checking account.
• Stop using our individual checking accounts and just use our joint one.
• Convert all credit cards to new checking account
• Get both us more involved with expenses out of this account so we do not overdraft.

Credit Cards

This part of the goal we have not made much progress on. We both still have individual credit cards we are using instead of joint ones. The only advantage to individual ones is it has been easier at the end of the month to see who has spent what. In reality this is a goal that should be easily accomplished if we devote some time to it.

• Phase out my wifes American Express and merge her account into mine (since I have had mine longer and we both have the same card). This will be our primary credit card.
• Stop using our other individual credit cards and settle on some joint ones.
]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/2008-financial-goal-1-review-merging-finances/feed/ 0 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/a-look-at-some-high-interest-savings-account-rates/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/a-look-at-some-high-interest-savings-account-rates/#comments Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:06:04 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=279 It seems recently there has been a bit of a surge in online interest rates from the bottom where they were. Currently I am with Countrywide Savings which is still offering one of the higher rates. There are some other popular banks out there like HSBC who have recently increased their rates. The average rate is about 3.50%.

I thought I would take some time to look at the interest rates of some of the top as well as the more popular savings solutions.

APY	Name	Min Bal	Notes
4.00%	Alliant CU Savings	$5	If < $100, 0% APY; *via linked acct
3.85%	IndyMac Bank	$10k	0%,$7/mo < $1K; 1.35% < $10K
3.65%	Countrywide Savings	$10k	3.0% < $10K
3.50%	Cap One Online Savings	$10k	2.5% < $10K, no fees
3.50%	HSBC Direct	$1
3.50%	FNBO Direct	$1
3.30%	WAMU	$1	link to free checking accnt
3.00%	ING Direct	$1

]]> http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/a-look-at-some-high-interest-savings-account-rates/feed/ 4 http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/amazoncom-grocery-10-off-50-and-june-clearance-event/ http://www.thefinancejourney.com/personal-finance/amazoncom-grocery-10-off-50-and-june-clearance-event/#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:47:54 +0000 Chuck http://www.thefinancejourney.com/?p=276 Amazon.com is having yet another grocery sale with a $10 off coupon. You can find some good deals here on bulk items like coffee, and I find their prices on gluten free pasta and bread kits to be pretty good when you can use such a coupon.

Use Code: GROCJUNE to get $10 off a $25 order (only good in the grocery section). You get free shipping on a $25 order before the coupon is applied.

They also have some deals on their June Clearance Items.

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