I recently got a refund from my mortgage escrow servicer, as my property taxes decreased. This reminded me about how I always used to read that you should manage your own escrow account. I don’t think I have a choice about the matter right now, but I tried to research all the pros and cons below. Did I miss something? Share your own reasons in the…
Amazon has dropped the price on the Ooma Core (Hub+Scout) VoIP phone system to $199 from $249. This is the older Ooma system, which still has unlimited long distance but also does not have any monthly regulatory fees/taxes charged each month, for a completely fee-free experience. They don’t make these anymore, and are increasingly hard to find. (The new Ooma Telo has higher fees of…
You may be familiar with Predictably Irrational, a best-selling book by a professor in behavorial economics that challenges the idea that humans behave rationally. In fact, says author Dan Ariely, humans are predictably irrational in many ways that may surprise you. I recently learned about his new book, The Upside of Irrationality, in this Yahoo article by Laura Rowley, which according to the description “exposes…
Online bank ING Direct has a few specials for Independence Day that (for some reason) are only good until midnight on Friday, July 2nd. In all cases, they are slightly better versions of offers that they regularly offer. Not a bad time to pounce if you’ve been on the fence. See ingdirect.com/independence/ for details. Thanks to reader Terry for the tip.
I ran across another cautionary tale highlighting the world of paid stock newsletters, where people pay hundreds of dollars for “exclusive” stock picks.
In this one, former professional baseball player Lenny Dykstra somehow become a highly-touted investment columnist in 2005 for TheStreet.com. Here’s a video of Jim Cramer heaping praise upon Dykstra, calling him “one of the great ones” and one of the 5 people…
While flipping through old magazines at the Doc’s office, I read about a site called Blippy.com in a Time article. It’s yet another social media site, except this time you link up your credit card data so it can automatically share all your purchases with others (amount, store, and in limited cases actual items). You can add more details, and users can comment and discuss each…
The Chase Freedom Visa card has a new promotion offering a $100 check if you sign up and make $799 in purchases in your first three months. In addition, as a rewards credit card it is better than the plain vanilla 1% cashback cards, with its 5% cashback on rotating categories like gas, home improvement and department stores. The categories usually include at least one…
Perkstreet Financial is relatively new, but they’ve already tried a bunch of different ways to make their online checking account attractive, from sign-up bonuses to coffee awards. However, I think they’ve stumbled onto something with their new cashback debit card rewards structure that beats out any other online bank currently:
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“Terrorist attacks. Natural disasters. Domestic crackdowns. Economic collapse. Riots. Wars. Disease. Starvation. What can you do when it all hits the fan?”
Sounds like great travel reading, right? Well, it was, at least for me. Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss is not, as you might think, a detailed survival manual, but mainly of one guy’s journey to try and protect himself from…
The bottom line for converting to the ETF version of equivalent mutual funds: lower costs = greater returns = more money. To illustrate this, I ran over to Mornginstar.com and compared the 5-year returns for VEIEX and VWO, the mutual fund and ETF versions of the Vanguard Emerging Markets Index Fund, respectively. Here’s the growth chart of $10,000 invested from 6/24/2005 to 6/24/2010 (click to enlarge):…
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