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ING $25 Referral Bonuses 2008-03-07 12:10:00 Have you wanted to open an online savings account? Well here's your opportunity to open one with ING Direct! They offer high-yield savings with no minimum to open (this includes both savings and CD's). This means better interest earnings than most other banks. I've been using them since April 2003.If you use one of the referral links below you will receive a $25 bonus. You'll also be giving me a bonus of $10 so it's great for us both. In fact, once you open an account you can refer your friends and receive the same bonus as I would. The catch (isn't there always one) is that you need to open the account with at least $250. What about those no minimums? You can always open an account with any amount lower than $250 but you won't be eligible for the $25 bonus. And check this out - I Read more:Bonuses
, Referral
Interesting Way to Buy a House 2008-03-06 12:50:00 So I told you we had our taxes done a little while back. While we were there our accountant told us one way we could buy a house that I thought was interesting. Here it goes as best that I understand it:First off, we're fortunate enough to own our co-op apartment outright. We hope to be able to sell it one day so we could buy a house of our own. What our accountant told us was we could get a home equity loan on the co-op and use that loan as a down payment for a house. This allows us to buy a house in a depressed market without having to sell our apartment in the same market (buy low/sell high).Ok great, now what am I going to do with two homes? Well, we would then rent the co-op out to tenants for the next two years. After that we would sell it, hopefully for more than it's worth n Read more:House
Tax Documents You May Need 2008-03-05 12:34:00 Tax time is here. These are some documents you'll need to have for your taxes (found on About.com):Income Documents
:W-2's - This shows taxable wages and any employer tax withholdings1099's - Reports various income other than wages, salaries, and tipsProof of jury duty payProof of alimony receivedSocial Security statement (1099-SSA)Dividend and interest statements (1099-DIV and 1099-INT)Brokerage statements (1099-B) as well as documents showing when you bought and sold your investmentsK-1 statements - Reports profits from partnerships, trusts, and small businessesRecord of income and expenses for ant rental properties you ownRecord of income and expenses for any self- employmentTax Deduction Documents:Moving expenses - Documents detailingEducation expenses (college tuition)Day care, child
Our Car Damage - Update 2008-02-29 11:55:00 If you recall our car got a major boo-boo earlier in the week. Good news is I got a call from the insurance adjuster yesterday and they will cover all of the damages! The total bill is just under $4000. Of that I'll be responsible for $850 due to my deductible (I have a deductible bonus of $150 for not having any accidents until now). I haven't had to use my insurance since I've had the car so it's nice to know the process is going smoothly so far from Met Life. They've actually been really friendly and helpful through the entire process (I wouldn't have named them otherwise). The estimate from the collision shop is about two weeks to complete the repairs since they need to order parts then do the work. Unfortunately that also means I'll have the rental car for that time as well whi Read more:Damage
, Update
We Went to Our Accountant to Get Our Taxes Done 2008-02-28 12:20:00 This past Saturday we bundled everyone up and went off to our accountant to have our taxes done. (Yup, we brought the kids. They're tax deductions after all).We go to a CPA that was recommended to us a few years back. He's great to visit. He takes his time to go through our paperwork, asks us questions, and doesn't rush to get us out of there. In fact we were there for about an hour.It ends up we're getting back a decent-sized return this year. We have the little guy (our now one-year-old) as a deduction which also includes his daycare. On top of that it seems that when my wife went back to work her tax with-holding was changed. There was too much taxes being taken out of her paycheck. We've basically been giving the government a free loan!One thing we need to do immediately is cha Read more:Accountant
, Taxes
A Car Doesn't Really Need Four Doors Does It? 2008-02-27 11:30:00 It's been a crazy couple of days here in FFB world. Monday morning while pulling out of the garage we had a little fender bender. Perhaps door bender is more accurate. The driver side door wasn't completely closed so when we pulled out it snagged the garage wall. Next thing we know the door is open more than 90 degrees. Now it won't shut and there's door and fender damage. We had the car towed to a collision place that was recommended. I called our insurance and reported the accident. They seem to be taking care of everything.Fortunately I have a rental car on my policy so Tuesday morning was spent getting a rental car. My insurance company set up the reservation which was great. The rental place picked me up (20 minutes late) and drove me to their location. Thing is, insurance Read more:Doors
Festival of Frugality and Carnival of Money Stories 2008-02-27 11:02:00 This week No Credit Needed hosted the Festival
of Frugality
#114. My article The Frugality of Our Feet was included.collectingmycash hosted the Carnival
of MoneyStories
#48 - Leap Year Edition. If I could Turn Back Time - Money Mistakes I've Made was included. (I apologize if you hear Cher in your head after you read that title. I know I do and I can't get rid of it - "If I could turn back time...if I could find a waaay.....Great, now I have that image of her sitting on that gun mount on the ship. Nothing matches the real thing - here you go!)Make sure to go and check out these great resources! ("If I could reach the staars..." Sticky song isn't it?)TurboTax Is The Easy Way To Do Your Taxes. Do your taxes for free with TurboTax Online Free Edition - Start Now.Make sure you subscribe
Canival of Personal Finance #141 2008-02-26 12:43:00 The Carnival of Personal
Finance #141 was hosted over at Broke Grad Student. This week's theme is The College Years.My article Seven Credit Card Tips from ING was included.I remember my college years. If I paid some more attention with a little more focus I wouldn't be in college now (unless I was pursuing a higher degree). The race is on to see if I can finish college before my kids do (they are 8 and 1). Wish me luck!Make sure you go check the carnival out!ING DIRECT makes $aving money simple! Open your account online today and start earning variable APY. No Fees and No Minimums!Make sure you subscribe to my feed to stay up-to-date with Free From Broke!If you liked this post feel free to give it a Stumble!I dare you to come to the site and leave a comment!
-Free From Broke
FFB's Festive Link Love Carnivality #5 2008-02-22 12:03:00 So we went from wonderful weather to go out for a walk to a snowstorm. Such is Winter in NYC.Here are festivals/carnivals I've been in since the last issue:My Dollar Plan hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance - Valentine's Day Edition where my post Roth IRA Goals Update was an editor's pick!Lazy Man and Money hosted the 112th Festival of Frugality.I've Paid For This Twice Already... hosted the 127th Carnival of Debt Reduction.The Financial Blogger hosted the 140th Carnival of Personal Finance.Now for some interesting posts from my Google Reader:What Are You Paying For? at beingfrugal.netYou Are Not Your Stuff, You Stuff Is Not You at My Two Dollars10 Timeless Lessons On Better Thinking at Life OptimizerHow Loudly Does Fear Speak? at I've Paid For This Twice Already...What is a Certified
The Frugality of Our Feet 2008-02-21 11:56:00 So it's Monday afternoon. We went out for a quick drive to do some errands. Afterwards we would be free. It was a holiday weekend for us so we were able to finish the majority of our errands earlier in the weekend. We could have gone back home but we were getting a bit of cabin fever. So what to do?We went for a walk! There's a nice trail we know of that goes by a local bridge (Throg's Neck) along the water. We parked in the lot, put the little guy in his stroller and my wife, daughter, and I went walking. It was a beautiful day too (it's still very much winter here in NYC). Let's look at a few benefits of our walk:It didn't cost us anything! Free is a wonderful thing isn't it?It was exercise. We tried to keep up a decent pace. This allowed all of us to get some exercise in fo Read more:Frugality
If I Could Turn Back Time - Money Mistakes I've Made 2008-02-20 12:20:00 Thinking back over my years I can think of a number of different money mistakes I've made. Some of them were foolishness. Some were ignorance. If only I knew then what I knew now...well I might not have listened to myself but maybe it would have helped some.Here are some big ones that come to mind:Getting credit cards and not understanding them - Here's the biggest one. Imagine being on college campus. There's a little table with forms to fill out for a credit card. Also on the table are those little Koosh balls (remember those?). Who can resist playing with a Koosh ball on a nice Spring day? I got one for free for signing up for a credit card. Well that started a long adventure. Next would come retail credit cards. Then some more credit cards. Next thing I know I'm thousands Read more:Money
President's Day Money Quotes 2008-02-17 17:05:00 In honor of President
's day here are quotes from twelve of our esteemed leaders:All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.-John AdamsIt's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.-George W. BushIn today's knowledge-based economy, what you earn depends on what you learn. Jobs in the information technology sector, for example, pay 85 percent more than the private sector average.-William J. ClintonA wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is t Read more:Money
, Quotes
Sunday Link Tag Fun 2008-02-17 16:11:00 Stephanie over at Stop The Ride! tagged me in a link building meme. What's with all these meme's going around lately? Below is the body of the meme to be passed around. Copy between the copy marks and add your five to the list. Couldn't say if it builds authority or not. Guess it depends on whether people keep passing it on. Either way it spreads the link love and might introduce to you to a blog you didn't know before. I'm always up for finding new blogs.Enjoy!*Start Copying Here* I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You will have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes we hope it will be a long list!) It’s real easy! Tag others and Read more:Sunday
Ron Popeil Gives Great Personal Finance Advice 2008-02-14 11:57:00 You remember those late night commercials starring Ron Popeil from Ronco, don't you? Remember the Showtime Rotisserie? Do you have the catch-line for it in your head yet? That's right "Set it, and forget it!" Those five words did wonders for the sales of Showtime Rotisseries!But those five words mean a lot more than how you can cook a small bird."Set it, and forget it" should be a motto you use to cook your personal finances as well.Let me show you three ways:Do you have a high yield savings account? Set up an automatic deposit so there is always some money going into your account. Forget about it and let the money earn interest and add up!Your company's 401(k) plan - Set up at least up to the company match to be taken out of your check and put into your account every payday. You wi Read more:Great
, Personal
7 Credit Card Tips From ING Direct 2008-02-13 12:10:00 I was just on the ING Direct
site checking out my accounts and decided to check out their tips. They list seven great credit card tips. Check them out (descriptions are mine):Make your payments on time - Very important! Late fees can be very expensive on credit cards and can negatively affect your credit score. If you have problems with the due date you may be able to change it.Try to pay off the full balance every month - Pay off the full balance to avoid any interest charges.Avoid cash advances - Cash advances on your credit card have different rates than normal credit. Yeah, it's gonna be more expensive than if you just charged it.Shop around - Compare rates and services from different credit card companies. Find one that fits your spending habits. Make sure to read the fine print Read more:Credit Card
Why is Roger Clemens in Front of Congress? 2008-02-11 15:16:00 Seriously, can someone explain why he's testifying in front of Congress
? Was a senator's son beaned by one of his pitches?I know it involves his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. I also understand this is a problem that not only affects the sport of baseball but also the youth of our nation who look up to players such as Clemens
. There should be more stringent rules regarding performance-enhancing drugs.But really, we have a war going on, millions of homes are foreclosing, we're either in or about to be in a recession, stocks are taking a beating, the value of the US dollar is low - doesn't Congress have something better to do with our tax money? What's this costing the US tax-payer for the whole steroids investigation? I'd rather see that money in my tax refund!Do I think h Read more:Front
, Roger
, Roger Clemens
Watch Out if You Have a Bank of America Credit Card 2008-02-11 11:26:00 Do you have a Bank of America
credit card? Better watch your mail! According to Businessweek's A Credit Card You Want To Toss Bank of America is notifying many of their better customers and telling them their rates may go up to double their current rates unless they opt-out of the card fast. Rates could go as high as 28%!! Of course opting out means you agree to no longer use their card and pay off your remaining balance.Previously a credit card company may raise your rate due to a decline in your FICO score due to a recent practice called "risk-based pricing." Now BofA is using their own factors known only to the bank.One consumer was informed that his rate would jump from 9.99% to 24.99%! When pressed for a reason the bank informed the consumer it was due to his not paying off his
FFB's Festive Link Love Carnivality #4 2008-02-08 11:52:00 Welcome back! Here are the Carnivals/Festivals I've been in since the last edition:beingfrugal.net hosted the 111th Festival of Frugality - Personal Finance Bowlbrip blap hosted the Carnival of Financial Goals III2paupers hosted Living CheaplyMrs Micah hosted the 110th Festival of Frugality - Simple Categories EditionThe Dividend Guy hosted the 137th Carnival of Personal Finance - The Passion EditionOn Financial Success hosted the 109th Festival of FrugalityI've really got to post these more frequently. Have I mentioned that I've been busy lately going back to school?Anyway...Here are links I've found interesting in my RSS reader since the last edition:My 2008 Goals: An Update at beingfrugal.netThe Pros and Cons of Drinking Beer at Dumb Little Man10 Morning Habits to Build Your Day Upon
Can Buying In Bulk Be Wasteful? 2008-02-07 12:06:00 Do you buy in bulk when you go shopping? We frequently try to on our many trips to BJ's and Target. Paper towels, toilet paper, diapers, wet wipes, frozen pizzas...you name it we've bought them in bulk. The theory is if we buy in bulk the cost per unit is cheaper and we don't have to worry about buying that item for a while. But I've been wondering...Can buying in bulk be wasteful?Let's look at a couple of situations in which buying in bulk might backfire...Items with an expiration date - We once bought a large bottle of Advil at BJ's. It was something like 500 pills inside. About a month after it expired in our medicine cabinet it still had about half the pills. The per unit cost was cheaper than a smaller bottle but the bottle really ended up costing us more. Another time we boug Read more:Buying
Tagged In A Book Meme 2008-02-05 11:46:00 There's a lot of tagging going around lately. Yesterday I was tagged at beingfrugal.net to give an update on my 2008 financial goal. Today I'm tagged by Finance and Fat in a book meme. Ha, I just got a mental image of a bunch of bloggers running around playing tag like they were in third grade... But I digress. The rules of the book meme are:Grab the nearest book with at least 123 pagesOpen it to page 123Count down five sentencesType the next three sentences in your blogLet's see what we've got (looking around). Ah, in my bag is Neuromancer by William Gibson. I just picked this up at the library on Saturday (lucky for you I'm not carrying my economics text book).Let's take a look at Page 123, starting on the sixth sentence: In the Dream, just before he drenched the nest with fue Read more:Tagged
Roth IRA Goals Update 2008-02-04 12:12:00 I've been called out by Lynnae over at beingfrugal.net asking for an update on my goal of putting $8000 into our Roth IRA's.Let's start off with a definition of Goal from Merriam-Webster.com: The end toward which effort is directed.Now a recap of my Roth IRA goal: My plan is to fund both my wife's and my Roth IRA plans $4000 each for 2008 for a total of $8000. This comes out to about $154 a week combined for us. I would open up an account at Vanguard and invest through them.So how am I doing? Toward the end of last year I opened up Vanguard accounts for both my wife and I. I started each with $1000 and bought their STAR fund (VGSTX) which is a fund of their funds. It's also the only account with a $1000 minimum (the others are $3000). Once the account grows above $3000 I'll look in Read more:Goals
, Update
Been Busy This Week 2008-02-03 10:17:00 Sorry I haven't been posting as frequently lately. It's been a real busy week! It was the first week of classes as I've been going back to school to finish my degree. Three classes Monday-Thursday nights. One of my teachers seems to believe he's teaching a doctoral class rather than an undergraduate class! I spent one day looking online for textbooks. There was no way I was going to spend the school book store prices! That may be another post. On top of that my wife is taking a weekend class this semester. Oh, and we had the kids' birthdays last weekend too. That went great but it doesn't leave much time to write posts. Ok, no more excuses. I'll be dropping more posts this week!Take care,FFBTurboTax Is The Easy Way To Do Your Taxes. Do your taxes for free with TurboTax Online Fr
I Can't Wait To Get My Hands On Some Cash! 2008-01-29 12:23:00 I've been chomping at the bit to spend some dough! We've been frugal for too long and I need to buy stuff! I can't wait to get my tax refund and my government stimulus check.I can't say it better than Peter Gabriel:Ive had enough, Im getting outTo the city, the big big cityIll be a big noise with all the big boysTheres so much stuff I will ownI'm thinking we'll get at least a couple of grand from my tax return. We've been talking about getting a minivan. I think we'll do it. Hook it up with all the automatic accessories; get one of those DVD players; you know everything! Heck, I think we'll keep our Corolla too. Two cars are better than one!And I'm loving these flat screen TV's these days. I saw in a Pottery Barn catalog that you can get a frame for them now! Or even one of those Read more:Hands
Our Car is Back and the Value of Customer Service 2008-03-12 11:45:00 We got our car back yesterday from the collision place (remember our accident?). I gotta say, the establishment did an amazing job. And I'm so happy that there are some places that still understand the importance of customer service. When I called to find out that car's status I was told the car was at the detail place. They made the car look beautiful! They even cleaned up the inside of the car! We had a stain on our back seat that was a mystery to us for years. It's now gone. They made sure to clean to the dashboard and polish the tires. The floor rugs look new again. They also gave us a travel mug, accident kit (which includes a flashlight and camera to document any future accidents), key chain, and a $100 credit should we, or anyone we know, ever need body damage repaired. T Read more:Customer
, Customer Service
, Service
, Value
Lower Savings Rates and an Irrelevent Post 2008-03-14 12:44:00 I was just checking my ING savings account and I noticed that their rates dropped again. Savings
is now at 3.10% APR. I still love ING and I'll deal with it. When I started with ING the rate was around 2%. It had even dipped below 2% for a bit. All this and their rates have still been much higher than standard brick-and-mortor savings accounts.What kills me is their CD rates dropped too! A 6-month CD is now 3.00% which is lower than their savings. To get get a better rate you have to jump to a 60-month (that's five years for those of you who don't want to do the math) which offers 3.25%. I think rates will go up long before five years so I'm not locking in 3.25% for that long. But I have a CD that's maturing and right now it seems my best bet is to put it back into my savings or c Read more:Lower
, Rates
Why Getting a Large Tax Refund is Bad 2008-03-19 12:10:00 As I mentioned in my last post, Surprise in our Bank Account, we received a pretty large tax return this year. It's great to see our bank account take a nice jump but what I'm going to tell you now is why a large tax refund is bad.It's an interest-free loan to the governmentWhen you get back a large refund it means the government was able to hold on to your money over the past year to do with as they wanted. And what do you get in return fro allowing them to hold your money? You get your money back. That's it. It was a free loan. Know what happens if you owe the government money for a year? Penalties and interest tacked onto what you owe. Even a low-interest savings account gives you something back. So why loan your money out for nothing?!?InflationAs defined by the Bureau of Labo Read more:Refund
, Why Getting
A Nice Surprise in our Bank Account 2008-03-18 12:45:00 We had a nice surprise of sorts in our online savings account. Upon logging in we discovered that our Federal tax refund was deposited! This was a nice boost to the account since, as I mentioned from our accountant trip, we were getting a pretty large return. The refund hit the same day I transferred most of my work bonus from our checking account (my bonus usually comes between February and March). So that's two boosts to our savings!Now for the trifecta: I also mentioned in my accountant post that I was going to change my tax withholding at work so I would get more money in each check rather than a lump sum (and give an interest-free loan to the government). Well I took care care of that and the first paycheck with the change came in on Friday. After the change I'm getting about $ Read more:Account
, Surprise
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