If you haven’t heard of Bluebird, it’s all the rage these days in the credit card churning-sphere. Bluebird is a service offered by American Express that allows you to load your card with debit, cash, checks or even direct deposit. Essentially, it’s an all in one card for those without a bank account or those […]
Archives for 2013
Turbo Tax 2012 Review and Premier/Deluxe Giveaway
I’ve been using Turbo Tax to file my taxes for several years now so I thought it would be appropriate to review their product. Last year, I debated over whether or not to hire a CPA but ultimately decided on using Turbo Tax again. Although my taxes have gotten more complicated over the years, I’ve […]
Should I Buy a House Now While Interest Rates are Still Low?
Over the past few years, many articles I’ve read have repeated the same mantra: “Now is the time to buy real estate.” Interest rates were low and they couldn’t go any lower, whoops, they did. Since purchasing my condo in 2010, I’ve re-financed twice due to mortgage interest rates dropping and although we’re getting closer […]
I Finally Guessed Right In My Trading Account
Even though I generally recommend investing in index funds and low cost mutual funds, from time to time I do trade individual stocks. Don’t get me wrong, I usually end up losing money, but I never invest more than 1 or 2% of my total net worth in one stock and the total value of […]
How to Start Your Own Online Business or Blog
Even though I graduated with an engineering degree four years ago, my programming skills were pretty sub par at the time. I took a few HTML/CSS, C++ and Matlab intensive classes but I always figured that I wouldn’t use stuff like that in real life. Boy was I wrong, all of the brightest guys at […]
How I Spend My VSP Vision Care Insurance
I’ve been wearing glasses since the first grade and when I made the switch to contacts in middle school my bills skyrocketed. Luckily, I had my mom there to pay for all my appointments and lenses so I never knew just how expensive everything was. Now that I’ve been on my own for a few […]
Why Should I Donate Blood?
“Give blood today and save some lives.” Doesn’t that sound great? I’m sure you’ve seen some form of that saying around town or in a bulletin floating around work. It seems like there’s always a shortage of blood and never enough donors. My donation days started way back in college with the Red Cross. Once […]
What’s the Best Way to Get to the Airport in San Diego?
I don’t travel much for my day job, but I do for my part-time gig(coaching). This year we have trips planned to Vegas(x2), Philadelphia and Dallas along with a personal trip to New York. Even though most of my airfare will be free thanks to Southwest(plus my companion), I’m still looking for ways to maximize my savings […]
Valentine’s Edition of Weekend Reading
I decided not to write a Valentine’s Day article this year since they’re pretty ubiquitous around the web right now. But if you’d like to read about some ways to save money on Valentine’s Day, check out my article from last year. I love celebrating Valentine’s Day, but I definitely do it my own way. […]
My First Default With Lending Club
With today’s pitiful interest rates, it’s hard to sit there and invest your money in CD’s that are returning 1 or 2 percent. So if you’ve been searching for alternative investments you may already know about Lending Club. But if you’re new to the peer to peer lending scene, you can read my first review […]
An Argument for the Social Security Program to Continue
There are very few programs in the US which are understood less than the Social Security program. You’ll hear a lot of mis-information about Social Security. “You’ll never get what you put into it!” “I’ll be lucky to get anything.” So on and so forth. The mis-information you hear contributes to giving the Social Security […]
Reader Question on Investing for Beginners: Betterment.com Review
Today, we have a reader question about the site Betterment.com. If you have a question for me, feel free to send me an e-mail. Reader TA writes in: I’m wondering if you’ve heard anything about the Betterment.com site? I’m interested in learning/starting how to invest, and this site looks like a good place to start […]
Preventative Care with a HSA: Free Physicals and Lab Work
Although HSA’s generally tend to have high deductibles, one great benefit is that preventative care is covered 100% for almost all HDHP plans. A recent industry survey found that over 80% of HSA plans provided first-dollar coverage for preventive care. This was true of virtually all HSA plans offered by large employers and over 95% […]
Weekend Reading and Blog Round-Up
I’m dying for it to start raining again in SoCal so our mountains will get some snow. My day job is pretty flexible, so I usually try and get up to the local mountains the day after it rains. Rain down here means snow up there and I found a great guy on Craigslist that […]
My New HSA Strategy – Rollovers and Trustee Transfers
Since my company was acquired by an even larger one last year, 2013 will be our first full year under the new administration. That means a whole lot of changes to our benefits and one of those will be to our HSA provider. Although the HDHP insurance portion will still be served by Aetna, our […]
Save $500 on a New iPhone 5 Through Walmart/Straight Talk
Ever since I graduated college, the one thing I’ve resisted doing on my own is signing up for my own cell phone plan. I’ve been on my mom’s family plan since freshman year of college and I intend to keep it that way. AT&T’s family plan lets you to add a line for $20 and […]
Be Wary of Frontloading Your 401(k) Contribution and Losing Company Match
January is a great time to re-assess your retirement accounts. It’s important to review your 401k contribution and at least consider re-balancing your accounts at the beginning of every year. You’ve probably made a couple New Year’s resolutions so why not add this one to your list? 2013 will be the first official year I’m able […]
$1,000 Cash Giveaway Hosted by Structured Settlement Quotes
Thanks to all of my readers for supporting this blog. I love giveaways so when I was asked to participate in this cash giveaway I jumped at the chance. Whenever I see a giveaway at the mall or anywhere out in public, I always sign up. And from all those sign-ups I’ve only won one […]
Is Restaurant Week Even a Good Deal?
Have you heard of restaurant week? Most large metropolitan cities have some form of it, but the general idea is that you pay a discounted rate for a three course price fixed dinner at a top restaurant in your city. In San Diego, the options are for $20/$30/$40 dinners at over 150 restaurants. There are […]
Guest Post: Being Average
With the start of the new year, I’ll be back to posting regularly two times a week on Mondays and Thursdays. Today, I have the pleasure of bringing you a guest post from reader Bichon Frise. I’ve known BF for a while and we’ve exchanged some good tips back and forth via e-mail and now […]