The price of ‘free’ in the rebate world

We have been waiting on a cell phone rebate from Inphonic for a whopping 8 months now. We could apply for the rebate only after 6 months of phone service and then have to wait for about 6-8 weeks for the rebate check to arrive. The latest status on the rebate website is that they unfortunately have to ‘reprocess’ the rebate.

We have to get $500 back so the amount is no joke. Somehow as the days go by I feel that my ‘free’ phones came with a big price.

1) I had to wait 6 months, fill in about 6 forms making sure I had the UPC code and all the receipts intact till then.
2) Now I have to wait till somewhere in rebate world some unknown entity approves my rebate and sends me a check.
3)I have no idea if by chance I missed something in my application or it got lost in the mail until it is much too late for changing it.

I know (am hoping) that I will eventually get my money back but this whole rebate thing is based on their hope that the customer will not be willing to go over all the hoops and hurdles to get it. I know there are companies that seem to have a faster, smarter process but it is still not an easy process;reiterating that everything comes with a price.

I agree with Mike

The act of buying AMGN

Finally purchased some AMGN shares for $67.52 two days ago. The shares of AMGN has been rallying pretty good (due to strong results). anyway lets see how it goes. This is the first purchase, hopefully a good one too ;)

5 things the World Cup taught me about Life, Love and Money

Someone once compared the world to a soccer ball as in the world is constantly being kicked around by fanatic men in short pants. This got me to thinking what this FIFA world cup has taught me

a) Passion: As always, I was taken in by the pure thrill of each game - the passion of the players, the enthusiasm of the fans. I feel the coaches who had the most passion and fire on the field had the more determined and successful team. You need to be passionate on things that matter to you.

b) Go beyond the Hype: A lot of time and effort was spent on building an image. The Brazilian team was the favorite to win this competition, but in the end they were just not ready. Beware of things that glitter, for they are often just sprayed on.

c) Too much of a good thing: I must admit I got carried away. I did not heed to any negative remarks about my favorite team, Brazil. I was blind to everything except what I wanted to believe. If I was like that about my money I would be broke by now. I think you should have passion but not too much that you are oblivious to the obvious.

d) Teamwork/Preparation/Skill and pure luck: As the games progressed, the better skilled and in shape team shone, while the ones who were not, fell off the bandwagon. It is crucial to be in shape; laziness, tardiness can be your downfall and just because you got it right once doesn’t make you safe. I feel this is so true about investing and saving; you always need to be prepared. And sometimes what makes you get ahead is - pure luck

e) Its not always fair and the world might not agree with you: Many of us have been disappointed, let down and some are still analyzing the ‘what could have been’. Whatever happens, we cannot change reality. However unfair we may think it to be and no matter how right we think we are, we cannot always get everyone to agree with us .The best sportsman isn’t one who is always the best but the one who always does his best and is brave enough to face any outcome.

To buy or not to Buy

I am have been reading about stocks for quite sometime, six months to be precise. After setting my sights for sometime, I feel its time to plunge and invest in Amgen (AMGN).

What: AMGN is a global biotechnology company that operates in one business segment: human therapeutics.

Stock Price: 66.45 PE: 21.6 Fwd_PE:18.90 52W_Low:63.75 52W_High:86.92 Beta: 0.8
Dividend: 0, Sales: 12.72B Debt/Equity: 0.41 Book Value/Share:14.75 Quick ratio: 1.3
Leverage ratio: 1.8 Price to cash flow: 16 5YR_ROA: 6.9

Analyst Ratings: 9/10 (MSN), in general buy or hold rating

Conditions Met:
Stock price near the 52 week low
Sales should be above $40 Million
StockScouter rating should be 9 or above
Institutional ownership should be above 40%
PE should be within 25
Book value should be positive
debt to Equity is less than 1
Quick ratio is 1 or higher
Leverage ratio near to 1 and less than 15 (close to industry average)
Price to cash flow is positive
5 year Return on asset (ROA) should 6 or above.
The price chart is climbing up

Conditions Not met
Insider trading – Two major executive sold shares
Debt to Equity ratio is higher than industry average
Does not pay dividends

Selling Price
If stocks falls more than 15% below purchase price
Target Price: 93

General:
The company is large and got couple of good drugs in its portfolio. In general I feel the company is confident and is not reckless. I plan to keep the stock for 2 years (will keep revising the target price)

Disclaimer: The website records the opinion of the writer at a given point in time. Site owners wish to remind that the readers are solely responsible for any action they may undertake based on the information provided in this site.

The "Tipping" Point

She said

Y'day I got back from Seattle and had reserved a shuttle to drop me from the airport to my home.They picked me up about 40 mins after I had landed so I was late late late for work.While on the shuttle I realised that I had to no cash to tip the driver and since I had already paid by cc online there was no way I could include it in the tab.He dropped me off and I thanked him and scurried off before he could give me a dirty look or something.

But the thing is I felt bad about it,that got me thinking about the whole idea of giving a tip.In India it is not expected ;though as anywhere it is appreciated and is definitely not expected to be minimum of 10-15% of the bill.I understand that most people in the service industry here make most of their money by tips and I have no reservations on tipping generously.

What I don't know is how to account for tips in my budget..Do they come under expenses?or charity?Is it tax deductible if I hand out 10 bucks for every cab ride I take?To me it appears like I am giving money away ..is it just something between me and the person who gets it or should I get the government involved .... Thoughts anyone?

HSBC increases its rate again

HSBC is what i call an aggressive bank, they work hard to give the best interest rate to their customers. They have increased their rates again (now its 5.05%). Couple of good things about HSBC are (from our experience)

1. Gives the highest interest rate (They always matches or exceeds competitor's rate within a week's time )
2. The online system works without much hassle or downtime.
3. No minimum balance or fees
4.They dont come out with deals for new customers alone. in their world every customer is equal
5. 24 hr customer serivce.

The bad side
1. Painful Fund transfer mechanism. it takes 3 days to transfer fund to or from your HSBC account
2. The design of the website could have been better. after all that is the only interface thru which you interact with HSBC online savings account. So some thought on improving the usability is required.
3. The account setup procedure is werid. First they send the account information in postal mail. then after one week username is send, then after yet another week the password comes!.

Other than that, i have no complaints. All in all, we believe opening account with HSBC has been an excellent decision.

To choose a broader fund or not?

Its said vanguard offers good index mutual funds with low expense ratios. While that is true, there are couple of things about vanguard that I don’t like. 1. for IRA (roth) you need to keep above $5K and for index fund you need to have atleast $10K in account. I invested the money equally among naesx and vhgex Its been about 3 months now and I am unhappy with the performance of naesx. Vhgex is a more broader fund and I can live with its return. The bigger question is that I hear reports that the bull run is ending. After all it started in 2003 and can not go on for ever. Assuming that the bear is coming, I think putting money in a broader fund would be a better choice. I need to do more research before I make the final call, but I sure am tending towards it.

Too many accounts?

He Said

I think me and my better half are having too many investment account with little money in them. We got 2 Roth IRA accounts, 1 Roth 401K account, 1 ESPP account and 1 normal investment account. By next year we will have 2 401K accounts, 1 HSA account and 1 more normal account. Currently we deal with Vanguard (Roths IRA) and fidelity (Roth 401K, ESPP and normal account). I am thinking on starting an account with share builder too. I am not sure whether it is the right strategy to spread our little money across all these accounts. Only vanguard account seems to have the minimum restriction. Taking heed to the advice dont put all your eggs in one basket, i think we will have to live with these many accounts. The plan for the moment is to use automatic portfolio management except for 401K and normal investment account. For 1 roth IRA i decided to focus on symbol vhgex and for the other maybe total international stock index. roth 401 k would be managed using retirement plan year 2045 fund. My HSA account would most likely be automanaged. Comments anyone?

Health Savings account

My company offers very good health insurance packages including the HSA. I have decided to enroll in the scheme starting next year (yeah, take the risk). In short, HSA concept is to combine an affordable qualified High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with a tax-favored health savings account (HSA). The reasons to join include

1. Company provides a contribution ($700/yr for individual)
2. i can make tax deductable contribution of $1200/yr
3. i dont have much health related problems so i think i can afford to take that risk
4. i intend to treat HSA as any other investment account and make the money grow for my retirement medical expenses (which is a long way to go)
5. I still get my free annual checkup, allowing me to check my health conditions every year and decide whether to continue with HSA or switch back to normal insurance.

I decided not to enroll my better half into my HSA account for two reasons

1. Her company provides very good medical insurance
2. i am not comfortable with the amount of risk invovled in putting both of us on HSA.

I will keep updating on how this plan works out!

Car maintenance Schedule

I have a second hand 1999 mazda protégé car which has done 85K. Here are the list of things I do to keep the car in good condition

1. I change oil every 3 months or 3,000 miles. I tend to be flexible on the date, but I don’t exceed the 3,000 mile limit
2. Once every two months or so, I check the engine coolant, power steering fluid, and washer fluid, and add if the level falls bellow full mark. I also check brake fluid, low level of brake fluid is an indicate that brake pads needs to be changed.
3. I take the car for emission inspection every year (required in Bellevue, WA)
4. I do wheel alignment only after the car blanks to the left or right once hands are taken of the steering wheel. i.e I know for sure the wheel alignment is out.
5. Air filter is changed on every 3rd or 4th oil changes (If I see that it is visibly dirty)
6. I look at the tire to see if they look properly inflated during every other gas refill.
7. The radiator coolant is changed every 20K miles or so @ jiffy lube
A shortcut is to take the car to jiffy lube for oil change, they do OK job with filling fluids and checking the tire pressure.

One of the things I didn’t do, is buy all four tires from discount store like costco or sams club. I know sams club offers free wheel balancing and wheel rotation every 15K miles. It’s a good deal.

Other recommended tips include
1. clean the radiator grill every 12,000 or so miles
2. park the car in shade. Helps to keep the paint gloss and lowers evaporation of fuel from gas tank
3. keep a jumper cable in the car, just incase you want jump startup the car
4. befriend a local car mechanic by taking the car to him for repair. This helps the mechanic to know the car and most likely he will recommend only repair that is required.


Driving Tips
1. I don’t drive the car with a/c on unless its hot. I like to drive with windows down and wind blowing into my face. This site (http://www.nsc.org/ehc/mobile/maintain.htm) says Driving without using the car's air conditioning increases fuel efficiency by 2.5 miles per gallon. But driving with windows down should reduce the fuel efficiency but who cares!!!
2. During winter with mild temperatures, Instead of using the heat, I use engine heat to warm the inside of car while driving. If the intake to set to outside air and temperature knob is turned hot, engine heat can be used to warm the inside. Some thing I found using necessity is the mother of invention principle when once in a while, my previous car blower would fail to work.
3. I accelerate slowly and use power brake (lower the gears) when ever I can.
4. I did not speed much. With mazda protégé you cant speed. But going above 60 is bad for gas mileage.

Cross country in $500

I had to do a cross country trip from Blacksburg, VA to Redmond, WA (yeah that company!). In all it took me four days (Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday) of driving with 12 hours for 3 days and 8 hours during the last day - 3000 miles in all. It was a pretty uneventful (Thank God for that!). Here are some pointers to cross country trip.

Preparation before the trip
The car
My car is a 80K done 1999 Mazda protégé. Before the trip, I took it to a local mechanic and have it inspected (I had state inspection due). Then opened hood and ensured that all the fluids - engine coolant, power steering fluids, brake fluids and washer fluids are full. At the stopover at my friends place, I changed oil at jiffylube (I change it every 3000 miles), where they checked the tire pressure also.

The person
I had a cold due to seasonal allergy, so went to doctor got pills for the trip. I also went to local Wal-Mart and brought a gallon of water, couple of packs of cookies, a can of peanuts and some cranberry juice. Incase I get stranded at least I got food to eat.

The trip
I planned the trip such that I take a day’s break in Fort Collins, CO. I borrowed my roommate road atlas and decided to do ~750 miles each day for 3 days and ~500 miles the last day. In all two stays in hotel (Columbus, MO and Bosie, ID) and a day at my friends place.

Expenses
11 refills of gas totaling: $266
2 logging totaling: $168
7 eating totaling: $70
In all $504 to drive across the country. Not bad!

My Opinion Counts

She Said

I have been a member of a national survey organization for over a year now or more like I have been taking online surveys on their website.Somebody told me about this website long time ago and I have been taking a few surveys when I get time.It is free to enroll and you get points for taking surveys.When you get 1000 points you can redeem $10.They also send you products to try out.I recently was sent a bottle of Easy Off BAM for my feedback.

Well it's easy enough to do and though takes time to get stuff ; it is something to do in your spare time and I don't complain when I get products for free.

Deal or No Deal ?

She Said

We have been looking for furniture for our new apartment for about a week now.We came across an offer on Craigslist for a living room/dining room set which included a dining table with 4 chairs,a 3 seater sofa,a sofa chair,2 glass end tables and a glass coffee table(below are the pictures)for $ 750.After we were done negotiating we settled for $ 650 with them delivering the furniture to our apartment(which was so great) for no extra charge and the lady threw an area rug in for free.The sofas come with a lifetime warranty and though it needs some cleaning he and I are very happy with the whole thing.

We wanted to know your opinions on it.Would you call it a deal or no deal?

HSBC Rate increase..

She Said

This came in my email

Your HSBCdirect Online Savings Account rate just increased to
4.65% APY* for new and existing deposits, effective May 18, 2006.

With HSBCdirect, there are no fees, no minimums, no risk - now at an even higher rate of 4.65% APY. That is more than 8x the national savings average.**

Good for me :)

Dream Home Certificate

She said

He and I just opened a 60 Month Certificate from Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU).It needs a minimum starting deposit of $100 and the maximum amount is $25000.

Some of the highlights:

* The interest is variable currently 5.2% will be adjusted according to maximum current rate.
* You can keep adding to your deposit till you reach your goal amount which is at max $25000
*If you borrow against it for the downpayment toward the purchase of your new home there is no withdrawal penalty.

We are planning to buy a house in a couple of years(when prices are not as astronomical as they are now) and there is no time like now to start saving for it!

Let us know if any of you have come across similar schemes with other banks or financial institutions.

More details here

Food posioning

Caused by: bad food

Symptoms: Nausea (basically anything eaten after the bad food) and stomach pain (frequent)
Duration: Usually the effects last 24 to 48 hours. The vomiting starts within 2 to 6 hours of eating the bad food and as time progresses, it becomes infrequent and diarrhea sets in (which stops after 48 hours).

Treatment: Fresh air, drinking ginger ale/Gatorade (to avoid dehydration), Wal-Dram II (Meclizine tablets, antiemetic) and crushed ginger mixed in water.

Lessons learned
Mistake 1: Despite feeling odd about the food, I ate it - Never will I eat something that tastes different.

Mistake 2: I took a lot of time before heeding to advice, thinking its just a simple stomach upset - Take advice at the earliest.

Also I decided to lower the alcohol intake. Infrequent high doses of alcohol must be bad for the stomach.

The story
I got poisoned after dining at a Chinese restaurant (Fort collins, CO). Although general tso chicken I ordered, looked and tasted different, I ate the whole thing. I even remarked to my friend’s that that was no general Tso that I know of!. After dinner we headed out to a bar and had three shots of vodka. Usually I get the buzz after three shots (my safe limit), but not this time. A bit perplexed, I went to bed and started throwing up around 5 in the morning. I assumed it must be the alcohol. Frankly I don’t like to be disturbed in sleep, so I went back to bed. Again at 7 i vomited. Now for some strange reason, I felt stupid that I drank three shots of vodka. So I drank around 1.5 liters of water to compensate for the alcohol. Promptly came the water. That made me conclude that it should not be the alcohol. The thing with alcohol is that you vomit only once and its done. I assumed that my stomach is upset for some strange reason and drank water mixed with ginger. Also I took some butter milk to compensate for the acidity, no effect. In Panic mode, I started listening to advice and concluded it was food poisoning. Went to the drug store and took 2 tablets of Wal-Dram II. By the time I visited the drug store the condition was near stable.

References
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001652.htm
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/food_poisoning/article_em.htm

I just lost a bunch of money on my credit card :(

She said

I have commited the ultimate no-no in credit card history(well that might be a tad bit exaggerated) .The fact remains that I missed a payment on my credit(a measly 15 dollars) and now am slapped with a $35 late payment fee etc etc..The credit on the 0% apr card is so low I don't even know why I have it..I was hoping for them to increase my limit soon but now I guess I better just sit tight.

It's not the worst thing I just feel a little foolish..after all the reading i have done from pfblogs I should have known better.

Note to self:
1)If you rarely use a cc pay off everything on it and suspend it or something
2)Not all that is 0% apr is gold
3)Link your CC's using some software (MS Money) so you don't have to be so lost in this day and age !!!

HOWTO: Buy an HDTV

HOWTO: Buy an HDTV

Rebalancing Strategy for 2006

He said

Aronson said it's time for a little rebalancing. Get "back to 40% in domestic equities (last year's weights; add a few percentage points, especially to S&P 500). And much less in international, back down to 30% (from nearly 44%, the current weight after the strong performance in 2005). Spread it out equally among emerging markets (10%), Pacific (10%), and Europe (10%)."
The "international stocks' performance is too good to be true, or at least too good to continue," says Aronson. "Over the past three years the emerging markets index fund is up almost 38% annually, compounded. Pacific fund compounded at a 'mere' 26%. As the late Herb Stein said, if something is too good to go on forever, it won't."
Aronson reminds us that in his day job, he's "a bottom-up stock picker and benchmark hugger." Once the portfolio's domestic equities and fixed income are back to 40% and 30% respectively, "leave well enough alone."
So going into 2006, he has a new, bigger cash position. Cash is his "buffer, a hedge. Investors should be prepared to act when things look the gloomiest." And while he says he doesn't expect a crash, "there could be a one (rates spike up, emerging markets melt down, small-cap value loses lead to small-cap growth ...). If any of these categories crash, the cash should be deployed earlier than a year from now."
Aronson warns: "All this implies a 20% turnover, certainly far from buy-and-hold. But portfolio rebalancing is a sure-fire way to limit risk and improve return even though there will be capital-gains taxes involved. By definition, the best performing investments rise in influence in a portfolio. So when the inevitable reversion to the mean (fancy way of saying, what goes up comes down) occurs, the exposure is amplified, and the pain worse. Think March 10, 2000!"

Business Lunch Etiquette

She Said

I was just reading an interesting (and as a woman in the business world), very useful article about the Do's and Don'ts of hosting a business lunch

Some of the Highlights

* Have an idea of what you want as the outcome of the meeting

* Dress Appropriately

* Stay Sober

*Keep a strict hands off poilcy (substitute a hug with a handshake)

*Mind your language!

The article goes into details.But I think it will prevent some of the awkwardness and confusion that sometimes comes with meeting clients over a meal.