Swoopo

Check out swoopo.com. It's very interesting. Reminds me of the lottery. A bunch of people pay to get nothing so one person can get something.

No matter the faulty economics of it I find myself addicted to watching these auctions. I wish I invented this cash cow.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Net Worth February 2010

As discussed in my previous net worth post I am documenting two separate calculations.  Calc 1 is probably most comparable to others.

• Calc 1 - asset backed (includes cash): This month I was at $34.93K.  This is a -0.93% change from the previous month.  
• Calc 2 - cash based (does not include assets and loans for assets): This month I was at $13.68K.  This is a -6.67% change from the previous month. 

Click the image for a larger view of the last six months.

iPad, is it worth your money?

The new tablet from Apple was announced today.  Its name, the iPad.  Silly name aside, is this product worth you hard earned cash?  The question is of course specific to the value that you feel you would derive from this product.  Don't get sucked into the flash of the device without thinking about how you would actually use it day-to-day.

My two cents? I can imagine using this around the house for internet surfing, reading some e-books, etc. but definitely wouldn't pay for the extra 3G service from AT&T ($30/month - no contract).  Really, who needs a home internet connection, phone data plan, and a tablet with always on internet?  Not me.  The cost of the device is cheaper than I thought...for the cheapest model, $499.

A side note away from money, that is a big bezel (the big black ring around the screen).  Gizmodo agrees - 8 Things That Suck About the iPad.

Image courtesy of Engadget.

Yahoo! Mail Plus Scam

First and foremost, I have been a long time Yahoo! fan and advocate.  Now that, that is out of the way; Yahoo Mail Plus is a scam.  I have a been a long-time paying customer of Yahoo Mail. 4 years to be exact.  You pay $20 a year and you get what?  You get no ads in Yahoo Mail.  You get a couple other things too, I think, but as you see I hardly noticed.  Supposedly I get some phone customer support too.  Here in-lies the issue.

I recently decided to exercise my right to give them a call after a terribly frustrating attempt at getting the Yahoo! Autosync software.
Me: If I go to the download page and click on it, it takes me to my calendar.  Hello, support people, can you help me with this simple issue?
Them: No sir, we cannot, this software is not supported by us.  Good bye.
Me: Oh wait, support person, I have had enough, please cancel my service.  Goodbye.

Well thats a few more ads in my face but $20 in my pocket.  I would suggest no one make the same mistake I have by paying for this crap service.  Off to Gmail I go.

Net Worth January 2010

The net worth is a hard thing to track as there are many variables that do not lend themselves to providing an accurate portrayal of your financial situation.  Or maybe I just didn't like the way things are looking so I am cooking the books.  Just kidding.  Either way, I am changing the way I am documenting net worth updates.  I am documenting two separate calculations.  

1. One will include an estimate of assets that have loans associated with them (house/mortgage and car/loan [see previous post about purchasing car]).  I am not including the value of my second car as I plan to run it into the ground and it has no loan associated with it.  I will refer to this as my asset backed calculation.
2. The second calculation will...wait for it...not include those items.  It will include cash and investments, student loan, etc.  I will refer to this as my cash based calculation.

Without further rambling and justification.  

• Calc 1 - asset backed: This month I was at $35.25K.  This is a 23.04% increase from the previous month.  This large increase can be attributed to the value of the new car (with trade in, down payment) vs the loan.
• Calc 2 - cash based: This month I was at $14.66K.  This is a 3.89% increase from the previous month.  

Click the image for a larger graph of the trailing 6 months.

US Healthcare dares to be different, in a bad way

The political blog FiveThirtyEight has posted a very interesting graph of healthcare spending vs. life expectancy across different countries.  Guess who is out of whack?  See the full post here: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/01/healthcare-spending-and-life-expectancy.html
The author's detailed/original post was here: http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2009/12/healthcare_spen.html

Free money: $100 credit for DirecTV

If you are thinking of signing up for DirecTV, why not do it with a $100 credit?  Signing up through the referal program will give you the following:

• $100 credit on you bill
• Save $21 per month for one full year on most packages (new customer offer)
• Free HD or DVR receiver upgrade
• Free professional installation of up to a 4-room DirecTV System

Just go to the referal site at: http://www.directv.com/referral and enter in my account number as the referer.  Account #:  75582194.  Or enter a friend's account number but I would rather you enter mine as I am the one who pointed out this saving.  Its a win-win situation.

Save some money, send a funny card

Instead of buying the $8 singing cards (for Christmas, birthdays, etc.), save some cash and send an electronic card.  Someecards.com is a hilarious site for close friends who like off-color, but freaking funny cards.

Free 2009 Navigation Disk for General Motors vehicles 2007 & 2006 years

If you have a 2006 or 2007 General Motors (GM) vehicle (e.g., Chevy, Hummer, GMC) you can get a free update to your navigation disk (DVD).  You were have supposed to have received a postcard with a coupon code that you can enter in the website gmnavdisc.com.

If you didn't receive this coupon code, just call 877-NAV-DISC (877-628-3472) and give them your VIN.  No credit card required.  Hurry as this offer expires 12/31/2009.

I called today and within 5 minutes the kind phone rep had confirmed my order of $200 navigation disk for free! Mine is currently backordered but she said it would be here in a few weeks and since I got my order in before the offer expires, no matter when it ships, it will be free.

Not sure why they have this deal.  But I do know that I don't care why.  I just hope this disk has more coverage area than my disk that came with the vehicle (it couldn't find my Grandpa's house).  

Net Worth December 2009

Whoops, we bought a new to us (used), Chevy Tahoe.  It is beautiful and I can't stop smiling.  Although I don't have buyer's remorse, it will have an effect on the net worth in the short term but overall retirement growth will  not be phased as the car payment was calculated into the budget.  This month, included in the net worth calculation, is a decrease for a $2000 down payment.  As I do not include the estimated value of cars in my net worth but do include vehicle debt (a conservative approach no doubt), you will for sure see a sharp decrease in January when I include the loan value.


This month I was at $28.65K.  This is a 0.64% increase from the previous month.  Click the image for a larger graph of the trailing 3 months.

Merry Christmas.  Don't have too much of Grandma's eggnog!

Regards,
Guy

Plastic will out live the roaches

New rule: if you can carry it to the checkout in your hands, then you can carry it to the car in your hands. Don't use a freaking plastic bag.

Mint.com hates Google.com

I was just visiting one of my most favorite sites of the day, Mint.com and noticed something kind of funny.  The Google Chrome browser is not supported.  What kind of voodoo is Mint trying to use that won't work with a standards compliant browser like Chrome?   Hence, Mint hates Google.

P.S. Of course, for those who don't know, we wouldn't have Mint without the one and only Yodlee MoneyCenter!

----
Update:  I found that this is probably due to the beta version of Chrome (not the mainstream/stable version) that I am using.

Net Worth November 2009

This month I was at $28.47K.  This is a 7.8% increase from the previous month.  Click the image for a larger graph of the trailing 4 months.

Buy today and retire WAY later

When purchasing something today, thinking about that value as an investment of that same amount in retirement can put things into perspective real fast.  There is a great, quick formula to remember this by.

Take the purchase price and add a 0.

This quick tip comes from the following blog post: 4 incredibly useful calculations you can do in your head

"What am I giving up in retirement savings when I spend money today? This is an easy one: Add a zero to the price tag. Assuming you have 30 years until retirement and earn 8% annually on your investments, that $3,000 watch would have been worth $30,000 in retirement if you had invested the money instead. Coming down to earth a bit, the $4 latte (it's always the latte) purchased five days a week costs about $1,040 a year, or $10,040 in your retirement account 30 years later."

Sell your old gadgets / electronics and get cold hard cash

I just spent half of my afternoon cleaning out old boxes of computer stuff that I "need".  Need of course is not true.  I kept all this stuff because someday I thought I might "need" it.  Pack rat.  Well as I am trying to shed my pack rat skin, I have found another animal that helped me out today.  Gazelle.

Gazelle will buy back your old electronics and recycle items that don't have any value.  I found two old cell phones and received $40.  Well I haven't received the money yet.  The process goes as follows.

1. dig up your unused stuff
2. search for it on the website
3. indicate the quality of the item
4. receive a quote
5. receive a free shipping label via email
6. send your stuff in and receive some cash

Site: http://www.gazelle.com/

Enjoy the extra bucks in your pocket and the lack of dust collectors in the basement!