Brother Can You Spare A Minute?

Are you expecting a rebate under the proposed Economic Rebate Stimulus Package? This calculator can help you determine how much of a refund (if any) you can expect. This calculator is courteous of the Online NewsHour @ PBS.

Ever wondered where the dollar you just got in change has been? Where’s George is a currency tracking project that may have the history on your bill. Grab that bill and visit the website. Enter your bill’s serial number and your zip code to find out if anyone else has entered any details about that bill and it’s serial number.

As of this writing Where’s George was tracking 121,290,560 bills totaling $666,369,732. Pretty cool. Got to have fun with money once and a while. All work and no play makes Jack something something.

This year I decided that I would spend some time investigating new ways to track my finances. In prior years I’ve used everything from paper and pen to simple Excel spreadsheets. For 2008 I thought I’d go all high tech and so far it’s been interesting. Here’s my first review:

Microsoft Money Plus Home & Business
According to Microsoft’s website the price of this software should be $59.99**. I have no idea what a ** is, but apparently it translates to roughly $30 additional US dollars.

Strike #1: Don’t play around with pricing on products for people who actually care where their hard earned dollars go. I tried to buy the software from Microsoft’s website and imagine my surprise when the shopping cart had a mysterious $30 Microsoft tax associated it it.

I downloaded a 30 day trial figuring if it was worth it I might bite the bullet. After installing the software I tried to connect to my bank and download my statement. Apparently to use Bank of America online I need to pay a surcharge. While technically this is a BofA problem (one I will be rectifying shortly by switching to a new bank… I’m tired of them and this is just the last straw), I didn’t see anything anywhere in the product summary which hinted that there might be a problem.

Strike #2: Whatever problem Bank of America has with Money and it doesn’t appear to have with some other financial management applications; so either Microsoft failed to use its monopoly powers to benefit the consumer here or more likely they are taking a cut of this new revenue stream from the bank. Either way at $9 a month to use Microsoft Money with my bank, I’m not impressed.

Online I can download a copy of my statement in a Microsoft money compatible format and import it. I tried this and couldn’t get it to remove the other account or really work with it in any meaningful way after nearly 30 minutes of trying. I’m sorry, I want something to make my life easier when it comes to managing my finances and I didn’t see anything here that would do that.

Strike #3: I manage complex enterprise level networks and applications serving in excess of 2 million users. I understand computers. I’ve been using the Internet since before there was a Word Wide Web. If I can’t figure out how to open your financial management application and use it like a simple check register in under 30 minutes who in the hell is your target audience?

So Microsoft Money has struck out. It has been uninstalled and deleted. Sadder still, I could have gotten a copy for free if I actually liked it.Even at free, I don’t see this as being better than other applications I am testing or for that matter, better than pen and paper.

I’m sorry this review is so short (both in length and in terms of technical and functional detail). But life is short as well, and I wasn’t going to waste another second on this <searching for a word I can use in public> application. This thing makes Microsoft Bob look like a brilliant piece of programming. Sorry Microsoft, I’d prefer managing my finances in PowerShell to this.

Whenever I have a a refund coming from the IRS there’s always an internal struggle against what I know I ought to do (save it) and what the evil voices in my head tell me to do (spend it). Here’s a relatively simple hack to help fight the evil voices: Have your refund sent directly to savings. With Form 8888, Direct Deposit of Refund to More Than One Account you can specify up to 3 different accounts to have portions of your tax refund deposited into. So you can automatically have some of your refund directed into your Roth-IRA or other savings/brokerage accounts. You’ll want to check with the financial institutions in question to make sure there aren’t any fees associated with an electronic deposit.

One word of warning when using this form or the standard account direct deposit option on your tax forms: Make sure you enter the correct account information. If the refund is somehow deposited into an incorrect account, you are very likely out of luck. Banks are generally prohibited from disclosing account holder information and the IRS can’t disclose details about individual taxpayers.

This is a great way to get a jump on your investment goals for 2008 though if you are due a refund this year.

Thanks to SH for the pointer… Starbucks is currently piloting $1 coffee with free refills at some Seattle locations in the face of growing competition from rivals such as (gasp!) McDonalds. That’s about 50% less per cup of small coffee than their regular price. So at the moment if you want to take advantage of the price cut you either need to live in Seattle or be ready to move!

I admit to enjoying an occasional Starbucks latte (grande, no-fat, vanilla please) but it’s not a daily vice. But where the ‘latte factor’ really kills me is that since Starbucks charges $4 for a cup of coffee restaurants feel they can charge $2 and get away with it.  If I’m really in the mood for a cup I will suck it up and pay the $2, but when the coffee winds up tasting like pond water strained through an old boot, I send it back and ask for it to be taken off my bill. If you’re going ot charge $2 for a cup of coffee it better be a decent cup. Most days I’ll just brew a cup at home instead. Not only cheaper, but it tastes better too.

There is if you are looking to rent. According to a recent article by the Wall Street Journal, the soft housing market has spurred more homeowners to put their houses on the rental market rather than taking a loss on selling their homes. Currently this trend is primary being seen in the housing markets hardest hit by the lending crunch. But other markets are beginning to feel the pressure as well. Downward pressure on rents is likely a welcome change for many who, over the past few years have experienced strong growth in average rents paralleling the increase in average home prices. In some markets, such as South Florida, thousands of recently finished condos have entered the rental market further suppressing rent growth trends.

My friend Texy and I were chatting via IM about my Help I’ve Fallen In Debt And I Can’t Get Up! post and she had some great comments and pointed out some places I was not as clear as I could have been. Her points were important ones so I wanted to get them up for folks to consider.

Step 1. Set up all bills you can for electronic payment (and make payment automatic).
It’s significantly faster and easier to pay bills online. And if you can make the payment automatic, perhaps simply paying the minimum amount due. This will help you to avoid late fees which , I’m sure you are already aware, are incredibly painful. This first step can help you from falling deeper into a financial hole through late fees.

I should have been more clear about what type of automatic payment I was talking about. I meant that if your bank supports electronic bill pay you should configure your payments within your online bank account settings to automatically pay the minimum amount on the due date. With my bank, I am alerted when the bill comes in, I quickly review the total and if it is in line with previous months I do nothing else. If it were way out of line, I would review the bill to make sure there was nothing else added to it. Ideally you would review all of your bills to make sure there were no erroneous charges on it. But when you’re drowning in debt you take baby steps.

Setting up automatic payment where your payees automatically withdraw money can lead to trouble. If they bill you incorrectly or continue to bill you after you’ve canceled an account, getting things  straightened out can be a nightmare. Texy made this point loud and clear to me.

She also pointed out that you should check to make sure your bank doesn’t charge a fee for setting up electronic payment or receiving ebills. My bank doesn’t, so the thought hadn’t crossed my mind.

Side note: One of the great things about having started 60 Second Finance is I’m now talking more than ever about financial topics with my friends and family. And it’s discussions like this one that help me to improve my own thinking about money matters.

When my son came to live with me, I decided that I wasn’t going to be an ATM for him. Instead I wanted to provide him with an allowance, that if he managed it properly would allow him to purchase things he wanted. I also needed some help around the house. I love my son, but a neat freak he isn’t. So I needed him to pick up after himself and pitch in with some chores. We also didn’t have the best relationship at the time.

I spent a lot of time trying to decide how best to set the parameters of our new financial relationship with my son. And so far it’s been working fairly well. I’ve told a few friends of mine about the arrangement we worked out and the reactions have ranged from impressed to mildly amused. I thought I’d share our system here.

One of the primary things I wanted my son to know is that I trust him. So I pay him his allowance in advance each week. I make it perfectly clear that that the reason I’m paying him his money before he’s done a lick of work is that I know he’ll hold up his end of the bargain and that if he doesn’t then the allowance stops until he regains that trust. The primary advantage to this system is that if he slacks off, I call him on it and if it continues I stop paying him until he’s put together several weeks of consistent effort. Like most people my son doesn’t like working for free, so it only took 1 or 2 instances where the allowance train got cut off for him to decide that it was easier to help consistently.

This also lets him know he’s already been paid for the work he’s about to do. When he lived with my ex he also got an allowance, but he didn’t always get paid. With this system he never has to keep track of how much he’s owed and there’s never any disagreement on the total. Since he’s paid up, there’s no chance for resentment over being asked to contribute when I’m not holding up my end of the bargain.

And finally, the amount of allowance was non-negotiable. If he wants more money the boy needs to get a J O B.

One day a scorpion arrived at the bank of a river he wanted to cross, but there was no bridge. He asked a frog that was sitting nearby if he would take him across the river on his back. The frog refused and said, ‘I will not, because you will sting me.’

The scorpion replied, ‘It would be foolish for me to sting you because then we would both drown.’

The frog saw the logic in the scorpion’s words, and agreed to carry the scorpion across. But when they were halfway across the river the scorpion stung the frog. The stunned frog asked, ‘Why did you sting me? Now we will both die!’

The scorpion answered, ‘Because I’m a scorpion, it’s in my nature.’

If I were to suggest that this were a parable about Credit Card Companies and consumers would anyone guess that the scorpion represented the consumer? Of course not. Intuitively we understand that the credit card companies are not our friends, yet when they send us “special offers” for “New” and “Valuable” services we don’t recoil from those letters like there is a scorpion ready to sting us. Why not? Do you really think your credit card company has any interest in doing something nice for you? Do you really think that if given the opportunity they won’t sink their venomous tail into your back and try to kill you? Really? Because it’s in their nature…

The cost of the average American wedding has spiraled completely out of control. Based on the most recent numbers I could find (2005) the average American wedding costs over 1.3 million dollars! OK, OK I hear you…. that number can’t be right. But it is. [Read more →]