Most people know that if you sign up through a friend’s referral you can receive a $25 bonus when making an initial deposit of $250 when opening a new ING account. Both Nate and I used our invites up long ago, as well as going through all our family member’s invites, so when I received […]

I’ve talked about this quite a bit before. - the fact that saving money is a two step process and that paying less for something doesn’t necessarily mean that you have saved money.
After you have found a way to cut an expense, you actually have to place the difference between what you were […]

There is nothing that gives me more pleasure than seeing someone take a new technology and use it to their advantage to save money - especially when it is done creatively and produces painless savings. I came across a woman who has done this brilliantly using Prosper.com to lower the amount she was paying on […]

***The photo doesn’t due justice - the line for the security check went all the way back to the arrival baggage claim area and took an hour to get through at 6:00 AM***
The airports today were quite an experience. Glad that I arrived 2 hours in advance, I left on a 7:20 flight and even […]

While there were a lot of complaints about the Emigrant system in the first few days after their website overhaul, one thing that I haven’t notice anyone report on is that Emigrant actually made a huge change that makes opening an account vastly easier. In the past when you opened an account with Emigrant, you […]

One of the most important aspects of personal finance is discovering the best way to spend your money. This is yet another one of those things that at first appears to be so simplistic that as you read this, you’re probably wondering why I’m even bothering to talk about it. You’re probably saying to yourself […]

We have come to milestone - we have now given away over 500 ING Direct $25 bonuses to people opening an ING account through us. We have been quite successful in making money with this program and I get emails from time to time on tips on how people can convert the invites they have […]

I mentioned the other day that people don’t walk in the suburbs. I learned today that there is a very good reason for this. If you walk in the suburbs, you’re likely to get killed. I seriously was almost hit by two cars today not because they couldn’t see me, but because they didn’t even […]

I had my first experience with an electronic check today which was a bit different than I remember things. I went to pay for some things I was purchasing and decided to pay for them with a check. Normally, they take your check, place it in the cash drawer and you’re off with your stuff, […]

A bit more news came in on the wealth coins that are out there.
I received notice that wealth coin #10 arrived in Sams Valley, Oregon:
I was on vacation when it came and my family were all curious what in the world had come from Japan!! I appreciate being a part of this fun project…have […]

It’s back to the US tomorrow, so I took my change jar to the bank and had the coins counted - and now have an extra $270 in my wallet. One of the nice things about coin jars in Japan is that the coins range in worth from a penny to about $5 which makes […]

Some good news from the IRS today. Beginning January 2007, if you are getting a tax refund, you can designate the tax refund to go into up to three different accounts. Previously you could only designate a single savings or checking account to have the entire refund deposited into. This meant that if you wanted […]

I just signed into my Paypal account this morning to see that Paypal has teamed up with Equifax to offer free Equifax Credit Alerts to all US based Paypal users. Credit Alerts systems are basically an “early warning system” that something strange may be going on with your credit report. Equifax will monitor […]

A couple of more clips from the movie Maxed Out that are worth a peak. The Debt Collector:

Watch The Clip
The Debt Buyer:

Watch The Clip
You can see the rest of the clips at MaxedOutMovie.com.
This is a documentary that recently came out about credit card debt:
America is not only far from the world’s wealthiest nation; it is […]

While balancing your check book is not a difficult thing to do, the statistics say that you probably don’t do it. According to Moebs Services, an economic research firm, 87% of consumers don’t balance their checking accounts.
If you don’t know how much money is in your account, you’re much more likely to bounce a […]

Okay, I admit it. I have a curiosity of people’s coin jars. I love it when I visit a house for the first time and they have their coin jar in full view. I find it interesting the way that people collect their coins. Even though almost everyone in the world does it, no two […]

A few months back I wrote why I don’t keep my money in Japanese banks - which is because they pay horribly low rates. The other side of the coin is that you can borrow money in Japan at rates that most people in the US would have a heart attack if they saw.
I stopped […]

Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) fees are nothing more than a convenience fee, much like paying more money for food at your local convenience store. While most people realize that it doesn’t bode well financially to do all their grocery shopping at a convenience store, many see no problem at all using ATMs whenever and wherever […]

According to a study conducted for NACHA (the electronic payments association) by Tinucci & Associates, the total direct and indirect costs of depositing a check yourself instead of using direct deposit is a whopping $5.88. That means that if you get paid every other week, it costs you more than $70 a year to deposit […]

It seems that although most people are now aware that their credit score can have a large impact on the financial aspects of their lives, many still have no idea that institutions checking their credit also often use another score that is sometimes referred as the “hidden credit score” - your Bankruptcy Risk Score.
While […]