Thanks for writing this Sarah. It gave me some things to think about. My family has been trying to budget & with 3 adults with very different idea it is sometimes hard. I am a bit of a spender and have been trying to focus on my long term goals more and still enjoy my life in the process.
If you had, you have noticed that MOST of these establishments have pretty restrictive conditions. I've yet to see a single place that has a mere $25 minimum. Your cheery description gives the impression that it's real easy. The fact is that lots of these places despise people using these, and make it as hard as possible to use them.
I like to use addall.com to find the cheapest prices on books. It's not up-to-the-minute current, and it doesn't detail what the condition of used books are, but it trawls several websites and includes the cost of shipping so you know where the best price is. Paperbackswap is an even cheaper alternative, but only if you want to find dirt cheap, very popular mass-market books/outdated books (texts, game guides, etc).
Thanks for the mention and your take on Indie Fixx. I'm glad you find the site useful--that's what it's all about for me!
Btw, I actually do try to stay away from featuring too many well known indie shops. I like to give both big and little shops a hand in their promotion and probably tend towards the smaller guys a little more... it's an editorial slant. ;) I also like to try and make sure that all of us bloggers aren't blogging about the same shops, b/c that would be boring for our readers.
I will make sure to add your blog to my blog reader! ;)
As I'm from Ireland, I got a taxpayer-paid university degree. I thank my lucky stars for being born Irish, because the stories I hear from friends here in North America are heartbreaking, aggravating, you name it. I had total freedom starting out in life, to start a business, to travel, to freelance, or of course to work 8-6 and build my net worth. It's great.
Here's a link to the page about making prepayments. According to the Sallie Mae website, all federally sponsored education loans and most private loans allow prepayment without penalty.
With the loans I've had, if I prepay, I have to let the lender know what to do with the extra money. Some lenders make it easier to tell them what to do; others wait for you to call and tell them.
First, I have overpaid on a Sallie Mae loan and was given the option to apply the extra money to the next month's payment or the principle. This is part of their standard online system for payment, unless things have changed within the last, oh, two months.
Second, I don't really understand what you mean by "payment clock" and how whatever Sallie Mae is doing is so terrible. If you choose NOT to apply overpayment to the principle, then the other option is to apply the overpayment to your next month's bill. In that case, since you've pre-paid, you don't actually have to pay the next month's bill. This can be helpful if you have extra money from a tax refund and have lots of irregular expenses coming up, or are afraid if you don't put money directly towards your loan NOW, you'll spend it on something else. At any rate, you are free to choose if you want to pay your next bill or hold off. I don't really see how they could offer more options.
It all seems totally logical and not evil to me.
All of this seems pretty logical and not shady to me.
I know some people who left graduate school with over $100,000 in student loans! I can't afford to even think about buying a home, and I started "real life" at break even. It's hard to imagine what it's like for those starting out with such a big debt.
I'd love to share more in the future... I'm working on ways to relate the homeschooling / unschooling lifestyle to frugality. If you do decide to educate your children at home, you WILL need all the savings you can get! Good luck!
I wish that the internet had been around when I was in college. We could purchase "used" books from our bookstore. They'd sell a new book for $150 (science, usually), buy it back at the end of the year for $20, and then sell it as "used" for $100 the next year. We all knew it was a scam, but our college was in a tiny town and there was nothing we could do about it.
Selling your books directly to the next-year's students was an option, but difficult. There was no online place to do it. Students often didn't know what book they needed until the class started, as professors were in cahoots with the bookstore.
Sigh.
Anyway, that was college. As someone who wants to homeschool my (as of yet unconceived) children, I'd like to hear more about your homeschool methods.
Well, it makes sense (mathematically) to have the student-loan debt and pay off credit card debt first, b/c credit card debt is usually higher.
I am suggesting that the low interest rates may lead to higher loan balances. Since I remember when mortgage rates were double-digit, I also recall when home prices increased as rates went down (sort of a teeter-totter effect; one goes up, the other goes down). So I am wondering if the cheapness makes them attractive and possibly, overused a bit. I say this because I find myself not wanting to fund my kids' accounts excessively b/c they can work and/or get loans at low interest rates. But now I see the psychological stress that may be added just by having debt.
Also, I wanted to show that is unfair to blame consumer debt on 20-somethings, so at least they could stop feeling guilty for their loans on top of the stress. Things have changed and it's not all about spending too much.
On the other hand, I can't imagine paying to go to a private university unless I was very wealthy. I suppose for some the payback seems reasonable and in some cases, public schools (b/c they are less expensive) may be harder to get into.
Anyway, thought it might be an interesting discussion.
Thanks for enlightening me on the payment guidelines; you are probably doing this already but you may consider setting aside that cash and preferably investing it so that when your savings/investment balance becomes larger than your loan balance, you can pay the loan off. If you earn more than your interest rate, then you win (rather than Sallie Mae).
While shipping has increased, it actually works out to my benefit. Amazon has not raised most of their shipping rates with the lastest increase (bad for sellers, good for me), and I am still able to charge fair price for media mail shipping on my Ebay sales. Shipping has, in a few instances, actually been profitable by a small margin.
Textbooks for homeschoolers are not nearly as heavy as college textbooks. (think back to the hardcover textbooks you had in elementary and high school) I'm not sure about the market on college textbooks. It doesn't seem to do as well because professors are constantly updating the edition that needs to be used, therefore lowering the used textbook value. With homeschool textbooks, it is pretty much an understanding that older editions still hold 80% value as the new editions. (How much has additon and handwriting really changed over the years?)
Half.com usually has the same value as Ebay (not surprising since they are the same company.) So this would be an area to sell with and not buy from. I did notice that their selection for my niche isn't a wide, which would give me an advantage. I find that by starting the Bay bids at a low price of 1.00 with fair shipping, my items will always sell at a good price. With someplace like Half.com, not using an auction-style listing make keep the book around for too long without a sale. I like to get rid of my items immediately, while the market is still hot.
When I get extra money, like Income Tax return, I try to pay down my student loan debt. They make it impossible to do this...they don't stop the "payment clock". So basically, they just put your payments on hold, and don't charge you interest. They don't apply it to the principal.
They make it impossible to stop this payment clock. So you end up paying just the same amount, they make sure to get every last drop of interest from you that they can.
Textbooks are really heavy! If you were you able to make a profit despite all the heavy shipping, more power to ya!
What do you think of half.com? A lot of my friends use half.com to unload their old textbooks. That place seems to be THE place to go for textbooks. At least, according to my friends. I still have several boxes of 10-year-old textbooks under my desk....
I keep reading debt management strategies (on Wise Bread and elsewhere) that suggest paying off your student loans last because they're often the "cheapest" debt people have.
Do you think America's record levels of consumer debt is causing a "trickling down" effect where 20-somethings have higher than ever student loan balances because they're busy using (and paying off) their credit cards?
I too was lucky enough to leave college debt-free thanks to a public university and parents' savings. Go mom and dad!
The concept may not be new but the application certainly is, at least to me. You've added a nice bonus with the rewards programs. Also, I love that you have a knowledge of this market and can benefit while, most likely, still giving your customers good value.
I have to admit that I understand the impulse toward a large house. It would be cool to have a "media room" with a big screen TV and a number of chairs and sofas all facing toward the screen, and then a separate "living room" with the chairs and sofas all facing in toward the center for conversation. But when I let myself think in those directions I start adding more rooms. I'd really like a "map room" with a big table with huge drawers underneath, big enough to store maps spread out flat. "Wouldn't it be cool," I say to myself, "to be able to pull out a huge topo map of the area around Arches Nation Park and Canyonlands--or anywhere--and put it on the map table where people could gather around and look at it?" About at that point (just before I start wishing for a screened-in room for sitting in when it's nice out and a glassed-in room for sitting in when it's cold-but-sunny out), I start thinking about all the trade-offs involved in having a huge house. And I realize that my little apartment is perfect. A bit cluttered, because I have too much stuff, but perfect.
for the clarification. My understanding of arbitrage was usually used in relation to bonds, funds, betting, etc. I guess I never even realized that this was another example. Profit is good no matter what you call it. And when you have consumers who are unwilling to explore other means of purchasing a necessary item, it can create a very unbalanced market.
I guess this proves that the best consumer is an informed consumer! Thanks for the comment.
This is known as arbitrage...and isn't necessarily anything new. You just need access to both markets. Your added value is based on your knowledge, or their disinformation...or inability to access the markets that you have access to.
Thanks for writing this Sarah. It gave me some things to think about. My family has been trying to budget & with 3 adults with very different idea it is sometimes hard. I am a bit of a spender and have been trying to focus on my long term goals more and still enjoy my life in the process.
If you had, you have noticed that MOST of these establishments have pretty restrictive conditions. I've yet to see a single place that has a mere $25 minimum. Your cheery description gives the impression that it's real easy. The fact is that lots of these places despise people using these, and make it as hard as possible to use them.
I like to use addall.com to find the cheapest prices on books. It's not up-to-the-minute current, and it doesn't detail what the condition of used books are, but it trawls several websites and includes the cost of shipping so you know where the best price is. Paperbackswap is an even cheaper alternative, but only if you want to find dirt cheap, very popular mass-market books/outdated books (texts, game guides, etc).
Thanks for the mention and your take on Indie Fixx. I'm glad you find the site useful--that's what it's all about for me!
Btw, I actually do try to stay away from featuring too many well known indie shops. I like to give both big and little shops a hand in their promotion and probably tend towards the smaller guys a little more... it's an editorial slant. ;) I also like to try and make sure that all of us bloggers aren't blogging about the same shops, b/c that would be boring for our readers.
I will make sure to add your blog to my blog reader! ;)
As I'm from Ireland, I got a taxpayer-paid university degree. I thank my lucky stars for being born Irish, because the stories I hear from friends here in North America are heartbreaking, aggravating, you name it. I had total freedom starting out in life, to start a business, to travel, to freelance, or of course to work 8-6 and build my net worth. It's great.
Here's a link to the page about making prepayments. According to the Sallie Mae website, all federally sponsored education loans and most private loans allow prepayment without penalty.
With the loans I've had, if I prepay, I have to let the lender know what to do with the extra money. Some lenders make it easier to tell them what to do; others wait for you to call and tell them.
First, I have overpaid on a Sallie Mae loan and was given the option to apply the extra money to the next month's payment or the principle. This is part of their standard online system for payment, unless things have changed within the last, oh, two months.
Second, I don't really understand what you mean by "payment clock" and how whatever Sallie Mae is doing is so terrible. If you choose NOT to apply overpayment to the principle, then the other option is to apply the overpayment to your next month's bill. In that case, since you've pre-paid, you don't actually have to pay the next month's bill. This can be helpful if you have extra money from a tax refund and have lots of irregular expenses coming up, or are afraid if you don't put money directly towards your loan NOW, you'll spend it on something else. At any rate, you are free to choose if you want to pay your next bill or hold off. I don't really see how they could offer more options.
It all seems totally logical and not evil to me.
All of this seems pretty logical and not shady to me.
I know some people who left graduate school with over $100,000 in student loans! I can't afford to even think about buying a home, and I started "real life" at break even. It's hard to imagine what it's like for those starting out with such a big debt.
yes media mail rocks. that's the benefit of selling books.
I'd love to share more in the future... I'm working on ways to relate the homeschooling / unschooling lifestyle to frugality. If you do decide to educate your children at home, you WILL need all the savings you can get! Good luck!
I like this site, too. http://shanalogic.com/ I don't know if it's all indie stuff, but there are some cutesy things to be had.
I wish that the internet had been around when I was in college. We could purchase "used" books from our bookstore. They'd sell a new book for $150 (science, usually), buy it back at the end of the year for $20, and then sell it as "used" for $100 the next year. We all knew it was a scam, but our college was in a tiny town and there was nothing we could do about it.
Selling your books directly to the next-year's students was an option, but difficult. There was no online place to do it. Students often didn't know what book they needed until the class started, as professors were in cahoots with the bookstore.
Sigh.
Anyway, that was college. As someone who wants to homeschool my (as of yet unconceived) children, I'd like to hear more about your homeschool methods.
Well, it makes sense (mathematically) to have the student-loan debt and pay off credit card debt first, b/c credit card debt is usually higher.
I am suggesting that the low interest rates may lead to higher loan balances. Since I remember when mortgage rates were double-digit, I also recall when home prices increased as rates went down (sort of a teeter-totter effect; one goes up, the other goes down). So I am wondering if the cheapness makes them attractive and possibly, overused a bit. I say this because I find myself not wanting to fund my kids' accounts excessively b/c they can work and/or get loans at low interest rates. But now I see the psychological stress that may be added just by having debt.
Also, I wanted to show that is unfair to blame consumer debt on 20-somethings, so at least they could stop feeling guilty for their loans on top of the stress. Things have changed and it's not all about spending too much.
On the other hand, I can't imagine paying to go to a private university unless I was very wealthy. I suppose for some the payback seems reasonable and in some cases, public schools (b/c they are less expensive) may be harder to get into.
Anyway, thought it might be an interesting discussion.
Thanks for enlightening me on the payment guidelines; you are probably doing this already but you may consider setting aside that cash and preferably investing it so that when your savings/investment balance becomes larger than your loan balance, you can pay the loan off. If you earn more than your interest rate, then you win (rather than Sallie Mae).
While shipping has increased, it actually works out to my benefit. Amazon has not raised most of their shipping rates with the lastest increase (bad for sellers, good for me), and I am still able to charge fair price for media mail shipping on my Ebay sales. Shipping has, in a few instances, actually been profitable by a small margin.
Textbooks for homeschoolers are not nearly as heavy as college textbooks. (think back to the hardcover textbooks you had in elementary and high school) I'm not sure about the market on college textbooks. It doesn't seem to do as well because professors are constantly updating the edition that needs to be used, therefore lowering the used textbook value. With homeschool textbooks, it is pretty much an understanding that older editions still hold 80% value as the new editions. (How much has additon and handwriting really changed over the years?)
Half.com usually has the same value as Ebay (not surprising since they are the same company.) So this would be an area to sell with and not buy from. I did notice that their selection for my niche isn't a wide, which would give me an advantage. I find that by starting the Bay bids at a low price of 1.00 with fair shipping, my items will always sell at a good price. With someplace like Half.com, not using an auction-style listing make keep the book around for too long without a sale. I like to get rid of my items immediately, while the market is still hot.
When I get extra money, like Income Tax return, I try to pay down my student loan debt. They make it impossible to do this...they don't stop the "payment clock". So basically, they just put your payments on hold, and don't charge you interest. They don't apply it to the principal.
They make it impossible to stop this payment clock. So you end up paying just the same amount, they make sure to get every last drop of interest from you that they can.
Textbooks are really heavy! If you were you able to make a profit despite all the heavy shipping, more power to ya!
What do you think of half.com? A lot of my friends use half.com to unload their old textbooks. That place seems to be THE place to go for textbooks. At least, according to my friends. I still have several boxes of 10-year-old textbooks under my desk....
I keep reading debt management strategies (on Wise Bread and elsewhere) that suggest paying off your student loans last because they're often the "cheapest" debt people have.
Do you think America's record levels of consumer debt is causing a "trickling down" effect where 20-somethings have higher than ever student loan balances because they're busy using (and paying off) their credit cards?
I too was lucky enough to leave college debt-free thanks to a public university and parents' savings. Go mom and dad!
The concept may not be new but the application certainly is, at least to me. You've added a nice bonus with the rewards programs. Also, I love that you have a knowledge of this market and can benefit while, most likely, still giving your customers good value.
Very nice of you indeed!
PM gave you props over on http://crazydiets.blogspot.com, this is a great post!
I have to admit that I understand the impulse toward a large house. It would be cool to have a "media room" with a big screen TV and a number of chairs and sofas all facing toward the screen, and then a separate "living room" with the chairs and sofas all facing in toward the center for conversation. But when I let myself think in those directions I start adding more rooms. I'd really like a "map room" with a big table with huge drawers underneath, big enough to store maps spread out flat. "Wouldn't it be cool," I say to myself, "to be able to pull out a huge topo map of the area around Arches Nation Park and Canyonlands--or anywhere--and put it on the map table where people could gather around and look at it?" About at that point (just before I start wishing for a screened-in room for sitting in when it's nice out and a glassed-in room for sitting in when it's cold-but-sunny out), I start thinking about all the trade-offs involved in having a huge house. And I realize that my little apartment is perfect. A bit cluttered, because I have too much stuff, but perfect.
did it work on your vespa legshield? my GF's scoot has the same problem.
for the clarification. My understanding of arbitrage was usually used in relation to bonds, funds, betting, etc. I guess I never even realized that this was another example. Profit is good no matter what you call it. And when you have consumers who are unwilling to explore other means of purchasing a necessary item, it can create a very unbalanced market.
I guess this proves that the best consumer is an informed consumer! Thanks for the comment.
This is known as arbitrage...and isn't necessarily anything new. You just need access to both markets. Your added value is based on your knowledge, or their disinformation...or inability to access the markets that you have access to.