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Good idea: you should look for a new credit card once in awhile
It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at the credit card market. While I was never once the type to churn a bunch of credit cards, for a period of time during the college years – I was one of those guys that dabbled in 0% balance transfer cards. Thinking back, my time spent probably would have been more productive if I had applied it towards school or business – but alas, you have a different mindset when you’re in your late teens or early 20’s.
These days, because my credit cards are all essentially all on auto pilots, I hardly ever log-on to check the account unless I spot in my email an Amex offer I should add to the card, or a Chase reminder that a new 5% spending cycle is about to commence. After logging into American Express due to one such prompt, I was surprised when I was faced with a $1,600 cash-back balance.
Having a Baby? Great. $13,000, Please.
How much is that bundle of joy going to cost you? There are lots of online calculators out there, but a quick search will yield this estimator at Babycenter.com. The calculations are based on USDA’s 2010 report, wherein they take account of the region you live in, your annual income, and the type of schooling your child will eventually attend (big factor here). After spitting in my info, the calculator tells me I’ll be spending $13,000 this year.
The thing is, unless you’re an extreme bean counter, most people head into parenting with their eyes half opened. That isn’t to say people decide to have children out of thin-air, but I have yet to met a couple that based their baby decision on numbers. “Yep honey, we can set aside $10,000 per year, so we can definitely have another baby. Just let me know when you’re ovulating!”
Huh. CostCo Gas Authorization Hold on Credit Card is $150
I’ve been getting gas at my local Costco ever since the wife and I moved in the area 8 months ago — its not always the cheapest in the area, but given Costco is only 5 minutes away from the house and the line isn’t too terribly crazy, its my usual prefer choice to get gas (I’m probably using it more to justify the Costco membership too).
Imagine my surprise today when I finally looked at my AmEx’s pending charges to find that Costco’s authorization hold at the gas pump is now at $150:
COSTCO GAS $150.00
A quick Google search shows that the authorization amount of $150 has been around since mid-2012, so that added even more to my surprise and made me feel a little bit out-of-touch.
BillGuard.com Review – The Easy Peasy Guardian Against Bad Credit & Debit Card Charges
Earlier this month I attended FinCon12, the financial blogger conference. While at the conference, I was met with wonderful greetings such as “So what are you doing here? You don’t even write anymore?” via Greg from WiseBread AND Ben from MoneySmartLife — at two separate occasion, no less. To which I immediately scoffed and replied to these two fine gentlemen with: “I’m escaping from my parental duty, duh.”
But in all seriousness, one of the main reasons why I frequent conferences such as Finovate and FinCon is to keep an eye out for innovative and interesting financial tools and startups — to which BillGuard.com is one such nifty web app.
And Then There Was Zoey: How a Baby Surprisingly Didn’t Change My Financial Outlook (Yet)
Two months ago something slightly interesting happened:
My wife gave birth to our healthy baby daughter.
The funny part was we were wholly unprepared for having our daughter on that particular day (but lets face it, estimates are estimates). On that Tuesday morning, we were at the doctor’s office for my wife’s weekly checkup (she was already estimated to due a week ago), when the doctor handed us the admittance order to the hospital.
“Yep. You’re 3-4cm dilated. You can head to the hospital now.”
“Uh, come again?”
And the only thing the both of us could think of at that time, as we head towards the hospital, was that we forgot to eat breakfast that morning. Luckily I’ve been traveling around with the overnight bag in the trunk of the car since forever, so I was able to munch on some much needed calories while the wife went on a liquid diet order immediately upon arrival at the hospital (sucks for her).
The Deception of Coupons and Discounts: Yeah, I Totally Needed Two Gallons of Milk
This probably isn’t the most novel observation in the world, but it would certainly seem that a great many people get “tricked” into spending more than they normally would by the lure of coupons and discounts (cue Captain Obvious). These “fake-ish” coupons and deals come from everywhere: newspaper clippings, TV and radio offers, Internet promotions, fliers, smartphone apps. We are inundated in the idea of saving money—from piggy bank iconography in our childhood to the very real need to save for retirement as we grow older. If there’s the word “save” and the dotted line around a box, it feels and looks like savings.
TurboTax E-File IRS Rejected, PIN or AGI Error? (When IRS PIN Website is Unable to Give Your Info Online)
So its April 17th and you’re doing your taxes the very last minute. Good news, you just got an email or text from Intuit saying your e-file was REJECTED.
Fudge?
I just experienced this problem over the weekend and the annoying part was that neither TurboTax nor IRS has very clear instruction on this particular situation. I used the AGI method to verify my e-file identity. I have my exact 2010 1040 tax return on the table and I’m reading line 37 correctly, I even double checked if there was a fat finger mistake but still the e-file return was rejected, what gives?
Uh, Is That Really “On Sale?”
Last week, I went to my local mall for the first time in many months (or was it years?). As I strolled around, taking in the sights and the bustle of our consumerist Mecca, I couldn’t help but notice all the sales I saw advertised at every major clothing retailer. JCrew and Anthropologie had multiple racks with deeply discounted items. Brooks Brothers and Macy’s had a 40% and 25% sale on every piece of clothing in the store, respectively (yes this is exactly how I shop, I take notes of discounts for future blog post that will never be written). The more I walked the more I realized that there were considerable “sales” all around me.
Get $25 “Free” from Google by Sharing Your Web Surfing Data
Nope. Not one of those “get paid to work for Google” scammy ads. You can get up to $25 in Amazon gift card from Google by signing up to their Screenwise panel. Essentially you get $5 for downloading the Chrome browser and installing the extension. You then get $5 for every three month you stay with the panel program (up to $25 max).
Personally I wouldn’t want my personal data to be shared like this, even if its in aggregated/anonymous format, but for those that don’t care or mind, this is easy enough “free” money (in the form of Amazon gift cards anyways).
Here’s the full gist of the program:
Southwest Promo Code: 15% Off! (via Visa Signature)
Wow. Just when I thought the whole Visa Signature stuff is at times pointless, out comes a fairly nice promotion from Southwest Airlines and Visa. Not sure why I didn’t see this promotion earlier.
The deal is pretty straight forward:
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