CNN way to park money

He Said She Said

CNN Money article lists four options on where to put your savings.
1. If you're just starting to save - Best choice: Online savings accounts. I got one at HSBC

2. If you have lots of idle cash - Best choice: Money-market funds. I dont think so. despite risks, i would say invest (stocks, real estate)

3.If you need your cash at a specific time - Best choice: Certificates of deposit. i got one with dcu. but i park my emergency fund as CD. Crazy huh? but trust me it works. I wont break the CD unless its a true emergency. Also DCU allows you to take loan against the CD for very little rate. The money in the savings account bank is always an motivation to spend.

4.If your low-risk savings are devoted to long-term goals - Best choice: Short-term bond funds. again i would say build a portfolio.

In the list they say about things not to do with cash, they say dont invest in bonds (TIPS, Ibonds, EE Bonds). I dont think so, i dont like EE bonds, but TIPS for roth IRA and Ibonds for parking unexpected windfall of money looks good.

Things I Learned Today

• Men, Women, Money. I am sure i got ur attention to this CNN article
• 50 Ways to Trim Your Budget - freemoneyfinance article
• Save big on a tiny income - msn money article. Some interesting lines - Look at the Pottery Barn catalog, shop at Goodwill, Fly cheap. Renee recommends mobissimo.com and itasoftware.com, There is little that can't be cleaned with (a mix of) vinegar and baking soda.
• Five cent nickel talks about IRA Contribution Limit Workaround using SEP. i need to look into details before jumping in.

New words for 2006

She said (a humorous forward I got at work)

Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace (and elsewhere)!!!

1. BLAMESTORMING : Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2. SEAGULL MANAGER : A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

3. ASSMOSIS : The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

4. SALMON DAY : The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles

6. PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

8. SITCOMs : Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

9. STRESS PUPPY : A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

10. SWIPEOUT : An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11. XEROX SUBSIDY : Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

12. IRRITAINMENT : Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The J-Lo and Ben wedding (or not) was a prime example - Michael Jackson, another...

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE : The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were
designed to solve.

15. 404 : Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message "404 Not Found", meaning that the requested site could not be located.

16. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

17. OHNOSECOND : That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an e-mail by mistake)

18. WOOFS : Well-Off Older Folks.

19. CROP DUSTING : Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a Cube Farm.

Tips for the Newcomers to workforce

I like morning star articles. especially this one about the six things for new college grads. i am about to reenter real job in another 2 months. Always remember that the power of compound interest is remarkable. To quote A 22-year-old who invests $2,000 per year and earns a 5% annual return on that money will have approximately $226,000 when she reaches the age of 59. Were she to wait until 30 to begin saving, she'd have just $139,000 when she's 59. So save from the beginning.

Tip one does not apply to me, as i dont have any debts. Also i dont agree to the advice to have only one credit. If u are financial prudent, then you should have atleast 2 credit cards. i have close to six and i plan to increase it to eight. My credit card strategy is as follows.

1. Chase Visa - The main card 0% APR till May 2007. i buy everything using this one and put an amount equivalent to the purchase amount into my HSBC account.


2. Citi premier pass - used for purchasing airline tickets. I get 1 reward point for every 3 miles I fly


3. Amazon chase visa - rarely used for purchase at amazon, took it for the $30 reward. Will close it in another two years


4. Wachovia visa- very rarely used. First credit card, never going to close


5. Sams club - for use at sams club. I have stopped going to sams club so I stopped using this card. will close it when i move to seattle and take costco membership.
   


6. Hechts - not used more than thrice, took it to get 15% off while purchasing suit and other things. will close it in another two years time
   

i plan to take citi's drivers edge card and apply for a new credit card each year to take advantage of the 0% APR deal.

Tip 2 is important. i plan to max out the 401K and Roth IRA. Tip 3 does not apply to me, as i already have an emergency fund established. I am not sure about tip 5, with auto invest option. i might do it. Tip 6 is always true. It sure is a continuous education.

What's for lunch?

She said ( in a slightly paranoid undertone)

Seeing the growing numbers of Bird Flu and Mad Cow in Asia and now the US .I have been thinking of what to and what not to eat.

Meat and fowl are sick literally...

Fish is brain food or so they say except maybe canned tuna which with its mercury is more like brain frying food.

Vegetables have high pesticide percentages that are not water soluble.Fruits are now a result of genetic engineering and hormones.

Tap water has too much lead...

So that leaves me pondering over the question What's for lunch?

Suggestions anyone...

Things I Learned Today

1. I agree to this article on Free Money Finance, espcially the comment that the statement rich get richer, the poor get poorer is wrong. If you are discplined and determined anyone can get rich. Ofcourse its very easy to sit and complain about the rich.


2. Save on rental cars says pluggedinfinance. The strategy is using sidestep.com establish the highest rate you are willing to pay and entering a price about 10 and 20% below the sidestep rate in priceline and bank the savings!. As noted in the comments u may have to repeat the cycle couple of times. Thanks pluggedinfinance for the comments.


3. An easy tool for figuring out the allocation. its very basic. one of these days i need to sit and find out the best tool for allocations

Things I Learned Today

My Daily Rant

1. The matter of Bed. choosing on what to sleep


2. Expense rule of thumb after marriage and kids by rediff. Start off with an income that keeps you in comfort as a single person and add 50% extra for marriage, and another 25% for each child you have. Frankly i dont think mine will match this rule of thumb


3. For mortgage payment, writing a check is better than online payment as per fatwallet. It seems mortgage companies screw up the payments and hence processed check is admissible in court.

Things I Learned Today

My short notes on things that are interesting

1. Health is Wealth A site that lists the portions needed for the 5 a day rule. Vegetables and fruit


2. A excellent review of three credit monitoring websites offered by the same company!!! by stopbuyingcrap. btw the credit score given by these websites are fake (approximation of the actual one). To see the actual one you need to go to myFICO. myFICO has a bunch of calculators that might of interest to you.


3. myFICO default value for monthly expense is $2500. hmm interesting


4. Found this interesting rule @ financial train wreck If you haven’t used it in 12 months, you probably won’t, so get rid of it. Either sell it or give it away. Exceptions: family keepsakes and some paper records


5. This is a good site for magazine subscriptions. btw i subscribe to money, consumer report and get a lot of tech magazines for free. i plan to keep money and drop others.

Things I Learned Today

From today onwards, i will be posting a list of things i learn each day about investments and other related things. Although it might not be done on a daily basis this would be a great help in keeping tracks of things i need to remember. So here we go

1. Tempting CD deal CD Deal. for $2500 locked up for 1 yr, get 4.80% (which is not bad) and a ipod shuffle (resale value of $50 or $60).


2. Purchase postage stamps at discount warehouses stores such as Costco to save a few pennies. Purchasing from hgitner.com can result in 10% discount although you need to buy in bulk (in $50, $100, $200 lots). In most cases, you can't request a specific value stamp. Some dealers will simply state the total value of the stamps while others may tell your the general values of the stamps in the lot (for example, all stamps range in price from 5 cents to 20 cents). The stamps can be used to send any item through the postal system. Some may be older - even 50 years old, but all are still perfectly legal to use. (from Savingadvice)


3. I modified How to build emergency funds (from YoungandBroke Blog and bankrate) article to create a roll over fund for unaccounted expenses. Note: I already have a emergency fund (3 to 4 months of salary) kept as CD
   
   • Paying your future self Start a roll over fund into which $100 is put every month.
   • Budget-clipping tips refinance mortgage, use public transportation, keep ur car (4 6 to 8 yrs), do energy check @ home, and When the 12 year old says, 'Where's my $10?' cut it back to $7
   • when you under budget, put the difference into the roll over fund


4. Kids and Money (from AllThingsFinancial)
   


5. Buying a home that you can afford: Calculate all your income and make sure that your housing expenses -- mortgage payment, homeowners insurance and property taxes -- don’t exceed 25% or 28%. (from MoneyCentral). Most people say that a mortgage in the ballpark of 3 times your salary is easily managable.

Getting a new job and being happy with it

She Said

I am in the final round of negotiations for a new job at a new company...or more like the same job for a new company and these are some of the reasons i ended up settling for this offer.

* They accomadated my requirement to relocate at the end of the year
* They offer a lot of valuable free training and certification which would be a real resume booster for future
* The salary is competitive not extraordinary, good not great but first 2 points were a higher priority
* They have decent benefits and a sizable % matching on my 401k

All together I think I am happy with the offer and am looking forward to joining soon.

Some tips for people out there looking to switch jobs

Update your resume, if you know you are going to be job hunting soon...revisit the technology you are working on ...polish your skills...read about latest advances...basically get a tune up...and most of all get an idea what the market is looking for and see how you can be what they want

Get in touch with your contacts ....I feel it is so much easier to get a job through people you know in your field than applying from a website but then again this is just my opinion.

http://www.quintcareers.com/salary-dos-donts.html

Define your expectations and don't compromise on things that are your highest priority.

increasing traffic to blog

He said

Yep, i am trying out all ways to increase traffic to my site. More than anything the purpose of the blog was to hear comments from others about our thoughts on money and other related issues. so i have added the site to coupl eof search engines, to a list of blog directories (like LS Blogs) and also put up adsense banner (while we dont include the revenue with ads in our finanical calculations, we dont want to discount it either :). Let us know of your ideas on increasing traffic to the blog. Thanks

Stock Picking

He said

When it comes to stock market, i do feel like camel (as someone called me :). The fact that there is too much information and views on what stocks are good. Well just not stocks alone, mutual funds, options, etc. I have developed a fondness for Mutual funds (yeah they have limitations like expense ratio and higher entry barrier), but i think no-load index funds and retirement target funds are really good. My plan (about to start from this year mid) is to keep my 401k on retirement target fund, keep my Roth IRA and personal investments in Vanguard and Fidelity no-load mutual funds. I also intend to play in the stock market (US and indian) with small amounts of sum like $200 per month.

So then comes the issue of stock picking. i have decided to play it safe by watching a few stocks, the stocks i am watching include MSFT, Google (just for fun), AMGN and Mittal steel. in the end i might pick a few shares in steel and pharma industry. I am keeping track of steel, banking and airline industry in the indian market. I feel the indian market is getting pricey. I might pick a few shares in all these industries. I will detail the picks along with the reason when i conclude the transactions.

BTW the standard disclaimer. We (He said and she said) disclaim any liabilities whatsoever from your decisions based influenced by this site. Furthermore, if you use any information in this web site in any manner, you automatically consent to the following rules:
1. The information given in this site is under AS IS condition and represent the views of the person at the time when s/he wrote it.

2. There is an explicit understanding that by reading this blog, the reader consents that he or she wont impose any legal binding on the authors.

In short, you are free to use the information found in this blog the way you like, but you will never come back to us with a complaint or legal notice.

Gifting Smart

She Said

Seeing that He is already taking over what I thought was 'our' blog (men!) and feeling much like the arab who let the camel in his tent and eventually had no place in it...I have decided to put my 2 pennies worth in as well.

Yesterday my roommate and I went gift shopping for our friends' bridal shower.We had an idea of what kind of gift we wanted to give her..something in the housewares section.The premium outlets we went to had a lot of choices ;too many that we went shop hopping all day...We went into Mikasa for what might have been the tenth time in the day and started looking again..that is when we saw a delightful platinum formal dining set for a price that was nearly 1/2 that of what the others of the same kind were.We asked the lady in the store what was wrong with it and why so cheap , she said the only reason was that the plate set was part of a discontinued line and so was priced to sell...So we ended up getting an exquisite 20 pc plate set which I know my friend would adore for a price which was exponentially lower than what it usually sold for...Good DEAL!

So all of you people looking for fine things whether for yourself or for your friends...keep your eye out for discontinued lines/items coming off displays and you are bound to get exceptional things for very agreeable prices!!

Open Close principle

He Said

I have been reading so many personal finance blogs (pfblogs.org and pfblogs.com) for some time now. Yet i did not have much interest in blogging about my financial status or even just blog. Then she came saying she was planning to start a blog, so i thought why not write down about finance also. That is the genesis behind this blog.

With the decision to blog on financial status made, the issue is to what extend to blog. Most finance blog detail their entire financial status. We have decided to take a minimalist approach instead (the Open close principle). There are couple of reasons for it like we have NDA status with our respective companies, or we dont bother to find the assets' value (ancestral property)

Anyway the blog will be open in terms of decisions made, investments done, goals set and will be closed in terms the actual assets we have, and our salaries. Lets hope that is the best way to proceed :)

Born Free, taxed to death

He Said.

Yeah its that time of the year. i am already done with my taxes and mailed them on saturday. Its interesting to note that people are given more than 2 months to do their taxes and still on the deadline day the post office has long Queues. Hmm i guess procrastinating is something truly human. i do procrastinate on certain things, so i guess i should not pick on people and taxes too much.

Investment Principles

He Said

Investment Commandment
1. Even while throwing money into sea, count and throw.
2. Family is the most important wealth. Never forget that all these are for their welfare and safety.
3. Nothing is worse than being penny wise smart and pound wise foolish. Spend money when needed.
4. Teach the next generation on value of money and importance of saving, also teach them to give as they earn
5. Liquid money flows so turn them into solid investments (CDs, real estate).
6. Start investments early (early 20s) and aggressively (invest in high risk high return protfolio), then end with assest protection (as u age).
7. A penny saved from expenditure is better than a penny earned through income.
8. Just because you can afford things doesn't mean you should
9. Don’t invest in anything you don’t understand.
10. Avoid recurring costs to the extend possible.

Investment Rules
1. Continously evaluate the expenditure and trim expenses without too much comfort reduction
2. Live like college student till you hit 30.
3. Do free activities like visiting museum, fairs, park and spending time with family
4. Continous learning about investments
5. Buy things using Upromise and bondrewards
6. Subscribe to Kiplinger’s and Smart Money and begin a lifetime of learning about the world of investing and personal finance
7. The APY for all investment accounts (brokerage, kidsInvest, roth IRA and 401k) should be 11%.
8. Make the tax withholidings tuned such that you owe govt money during tax filing period (about $1k)
9. Keep copies of tax filings for atleast 3 years.