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Bargaineering

Bargaineering is a blog that chronicles my personal finance life and where I discuss matters of shopping, insurance, investing, retirement, loans, credit cards, mortgages, bargain hunting and other issues in my life.

Latest Posts from Bargaineering (page 3)

Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard: $400 Cash Bonus

Published Thursday, May 2, 2013 - 07:13 by Bargaineering

When was the last time you saw a credit card offer this rich a sign on bonus? It’s been many many years. While I’m not one for travel credit cards, I know there are a lot of folks out there who see a 40,000 bonus mile offer like that and begin salivating. […]

The Tax You Might Not Be Paying: Use Tax

Published Wednesday, May 1, 2013 - 12:06 by Bargaineering

Our tax code is large and often confusing. There are so many provisions that many of us don’t come close to knowing them all. Instead, many of use hire accountants to help us do out taxes. It’s easy to skip over a tax we don’t know about, as well as miss deductions and credits to which we may be entitled. […]

Can You Save More by Consolidating Bank Accounts?

Published Wednesday, May 1, 2013 - 07:13 by Bargaineering

New research out of the University of Kansas’s School of Business is showing that those who consolidate their savings into a single account, rather than spreading it out across several, encourages saving. Led by assistant professor Promothesh Chatterjee, the study was actually four separate studies with a total of 566 participants. […]

Are You Letting New Wealth Overcome Your Good Financial Sense?

Published Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - 12:10 by Bargaineering

One of the issues with new wealth is that it can provide you with a feeling of giddiness. If you’ve just graduated from school, it can be a heady feeling to know that you have a lot more money coming in. Sometimes, the difference seems so big that you lose perspective and begin spending money at will. […]

Frontline: The Retirement Gamble

Published Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - 07:11 by Bargaineering

Frontline is a great program, I’m a big fan of their work, and a recent show focused on something that often graces the pages of personal finance blogs – retirement. […]

Don’t Let Impostor Syndrome Slow Down Your Career

Published Monday, April 29, 2013 - 12:10 by Bargaineering

My husband is reluctant to apply for full-time professor jobs. One of the things holding him back is something that, as someone with a Ph.D. in Psychology, he is well aware of. It’s called Impostor Syndrome. “I feel like I’m wearing a mask,” he says. “My students, and even many of my colleagues tell me I’m great, but I sometimes I feel like a fraud. […]

Signalling, or Why Salespeople Always Drive Expensive Cars

Published Monday, April 29, 2013 - 07:15 by Bargaineering

Dan Ariely is a behavioral economist, which is to say he mixes human behavior, psychology and economics together to give us a deeper insight into why we do the things we do. Each week, he does a Q&A column in the Wall Street Journal but I usually catch it on his blog. […]

Your Take: How Do You Combat Impulse Buying?

Published Friday, April 26, 2013 - 07:10 by Bargaineering

To help combat impulse buying, j_stack shared his tip on Reddit: To curb my impulse online shopping tendencies, I use Amazon wishlist instead of dumping everything in my shopping cart. I leave the item in there for a month or two, and come back to it later to see if I really want it. […]

How to Start Saving for Your Summer Vacation

Published Thursday, April 25, 2013 - 12:06 by Bargaineering

One of the great traditions is the summer vacation. The kids are out of school, and many parents have saved up vacation days or flex time that can be used to go on vacation. Unfortunately, a summer vacation can get a little expensive. Whether you drive or fly, you need to come up with the funds to pay for your excursion. You shouldn’t go into debt for your summer vacation, though. […]

Treasury Series I Savings Bond Rate Update (May 2013)

Published Thursday, April 25, 2013 - 07:10 by Bargaineering

With the release of the March 2013 CPI-U figures, we now know the variable interest rate on Series I Savings Bonds for the next six months starting in May and it continues to be low (but it’s an increase from the last six months – so that’s good right?). The March 2013 CPI-U figure was 232.773 and the September 2012 CPI-U figure was 231.407 so we can calculate a semi-annual increase of 0.590% and […]