Jacob A Irwin, Author at My Personal Finance Journey

Petsmart vs. Petco – Which Is More Affordable? – Guest Post Live Today At Budgeting In The Fun Stuff

May 5, 2011
/ Blogging
/ By Jacob A Irwin
/ 2 COMMENTS

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 2 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that I have a guest post up today over at one of my Yakezie friend’s sites, Budgeting in The Fun Stuff.

The post is a cost analysis between the two major pet supply stores we all know and love (or at least spend money at), Petco and Petsmart. The goal of the study was to determine whether driving the extra distance to one or the other will save you significant money in the long run.

Read all about it by clicking the link below!

Petsmart vs. Petco – Which Is More Affordable? – BITFS.com

How about you all? Do you shop at Petco or Petsmart? Why do you choose one over the other? Which do you find is cheaper?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://images.cdn.fotopedia.com/flickr-305571892-hd.jpg

What Is Your Best Day-to-Day Money Saving Tip?

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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This post was originally posted as a guest post on Happy Simple Living on February 4th, as part of the Yakezie Personal Finance Blog Network “post swap” event. In this initiative, Yakezie participants are paired up to exchange guest posts on each other’s sites on a common topic each month. Enjoy!

Saving Money On Food & Drinks

When I was informed that the topic of the 2nd Yakezie blog swap would be to share our most effective money saving tip we employ on a daily basis, I immediately knew what my answer would be.

The answer is simple. I save big money on food and even bigger money on drinks! How do I do this and how much do I save, you ask? These ideas will be the topic of this post!

Before we get started on sharing my tips on how to save money on food and beverages, I want to address the question about just how much you can save by reducing the amount of eating/drinking out you do.

Up Against The Averages

The average cost per meal (included tax and tip) for one person eating out is $17. Obviously, this varies depending on where you live. But for now, we’ll use that as the average for our analysis.

How Do The Totals Look?

According to UCSD Nutrition Link, Americans eat out an average of 4-5 times per week. Assuming the frequency value of 4 times per week, this equates to $68 per week, or $272 per month. This is incredible!

According to a report from the USDA in 2007, the average monthly per person cost on groceries is $112.

In looking at these numbers, it occurred to me that I am clearly spending more on groceries every month ($200 is my average grocery bill per month), but since I am only averaging eating out once per week (total eating out bill of $68 per month), my overall food cost is greatly decreased.

Let’s put this in to plain English, shall we? My monthly savings over the spending schedule above would be $272+$112-$200-$68 = $116. This equates to saving $1,392 per year!

If instead of spending that extra $116 each month on food, I invested it in my Roth IRA in an index mutual fund averaging 10% return from now (at age 25) until the age I retire (age 67), it would be worth $748,000 due to the miracle of compounding interest.

As you can see from this example, it is clear that there is a lot of potential for accumulating wealth with this money saving tip alone.

So, let’s take a look at some of the things I do to save money on food and beverages.

Money-Saving Strategies for Food and Beverage Purchases

1) Purchasing $3 Bottles of Wine

This potent strategy works wonders on relieving the strain on your pocket book. Every two months or so, while I am at the grocery store (I shop at either Kroger or Wal-Mart), I stock up on approximately 8-12 bottles of $3 wine. At Kroger, the brand I buy is Bay Bridge, and at Wal-Mart, the brand is Oak Leaf.

This is the type of wine that I drink when having larger get-togethers or am just eating dinner at home by myself and feel like a glass of wine.

For special occasions (one when I can really appreciate the wine), I have several “nicer” bottles of $10-$20 per bottle local Virginia wines that I drink. By employing this one method, I save most likely several hundreds of Dollars per year.

2) Only Purchase Wine at Restaurants on Special Occasions

At a restaurant recently, a bottle of local Virginia wine was listed on the menu for $45. The price to buy this same wine at the grocery store or at the winery was $15. This represents a 3X markup! Wow! Now that’s profit!

As it turns out, the average markup for bottles of wine at restaurants is 2.5-4 times the normal retail cost. Personally (maybe I am just plain weird), but I find it very hard to actually enjoy the taste of something when I know it is ripping me off from the inside out.

Therefore, unless it is special occasion and I have planned for it financially, I personally don’t buy wine at restaurants!

3) Never Go Out to Eat Alone

This is one of my favorite money-saving strategies, and it is so simple. Only go out to eat when you are going out with friends!

Think about it. If you’re like me, you probably eat 80% of your meals by yourself (including breakfast and lunches). By simply eating at home or bringing lunch to work with you, you can save tons of money if you just make it a policy to avoid restaurants/fast-food if you are by yourself.

After all, who wants to eat out alone at a restaurant anyway?!

4) Buy in Bulk and Buy Generic

At least once a month, I make it a policy to go to the local Wal-Mart to stock up on the bulk of my groceries.

Why? Simply put – no one can beat Wal-Mart’s prices when it comes to their generic Great Value brand. And, I bet you “name-brand” loyal shoppers out there would be surprised how good the quality of a lot of their items is.

While I am at Wal-Mart, I try to buy as much as possible of items that won’t go bad. Examples of these items include bagged cereal, oatmeal, pasta, canned beans, salsa, tortilla shells (I love burritos!), frozen fruit, etc.

5) Buy Frozen Foods and Canned Foods

The last money saving tip of today’s post may also be one of the most effective; I save big money by buying canned and frozen foods.

Even though canned and frozen foods do not taste quite as good as fresh foods, they keep for longer, can be bought in bulk, and are much much cheaper.

Furthermore, recent studies have shown that since frozen vegetables and fruits are picked and flash-frozen at the peak of ripeness (instead of when they are green so that they ripen while being shipped from Chile to California over a 2 month period), they contain a much higher level of nutrients.

Well – those 5 tips are the main ways I save money on a daily basis. Thanks to everyone for reading my guest post. I hope you can use some of these tips in your daily life to save money for your future.

How about you all? What strategies do you use to save big money on a day-to-day basis?

***Photo courtesy of http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1217/5125464384_9182d3426f.jpg

Stocks For The Long Run by Jeremy Siegel – Book Review

May 3, 2011
/ Invest & Retire
/ By Jacob A Irwin
/ 12 COMMENTS

It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than 4 years since January of 2007. However, that’s how long it’s been since I first started learning what investing was for real through self-directed reading.

Sure, I had learned about personal finance topics in my finance classes in my undergraduate degree. However, if I had relied on learning everything about personal finance from those classes, this blog would never have gotten started, and you most likely wouldn’t be reading it right now.

You heard me right folks. I am willing to bet that you can get a better education about personal finance yourself by reading some of the high-quality books out there then you can from any university professor. This whole debate is an entirely different matter (and one that I feel very strongly about – keep an eye out for a future post), so let’s get back to the subject of today’s post before I go off on too much of a tangent.

In January of 2007 (during a trip to Macchu Picchu, Peru with my family), I read “Stocks for the Long Run” by Jeremy Siegel for the first time. Since then, it has truly become one of my favorite personal finance/investing books of all time (up there along with A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Malkiel and What Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know and Swedroe).

I consider this my “investing bible.” I may even have a problem because I just realized that I have been sleeping with it no less than 2 feet away from me on the bookshelf for the past couple of years! haha

In this book, Siegel and his Wharton Business School research team explore pretty much every question you have or could ever wonder about regarding long-term investing in stocks, bonds, and cash-based securities.

The book is divided into five Parts:

In Part 1, Siegel examines historical data to determine what trends are present to discriminate how the equity and fixed income markets function. In Part 2, the research team analyzes different techniques to value securities and to predict the future returns investors can hope to obtain. Unfortunately for us, their findings indicate that future returns will be significantly lower due to the bleak outlook of dividends.

In Part 3, which is in my opinion, one of the most interesting sections of the book, Siegel analyzes how stocks and bonds have performed during specific periods in history. For example, he analyzed performance during the Sept. 11, 2001 disaster, during wars, and how they have performed when Republicans vs. Democrats are President of the United States. Some of the results are counter-intuitive!

Part 4 of the book explores various short-term periods in history in an attempt to discern whether or not patterns are present which can be exploited to profit when incorporated into one’s investment strategy. Unfortunately, the team pretty much finds that there are no short-term fluctuations that can reliably beat the market averages.

The final section of the book, Part 5, is my favorite portion because it basically summarizes how all of the evidence he presented in the previous Parts can be used to create an intelligent investment strategy. And guess what, he concludes that low-cost index mutual funds are the best way to go! How about that?! That’s why my investing strategy is based on fixed income and equity mutual funds instead of individual stocks.

One thing that I think could be improved upon in this book is to add additional detail showing example portfolios of how asset allocation should change throughout one’s life.

However, for the most part, if you are wondering anything about stocks, bonds, or any security for that matter, this is the book to go to!

Recommendation for purchasing the book (if you so desire)

If you’re interested in buying this book, I would recommend purchasing a cheap, used copy from Amazon. There are two editions available for purchase – 1) the 2007 edition and 2) the 2002 edition.

Personally, I would buy the 2002 edition because it is only $0.48 vs. $23 for the newer edition. I seriously doubt that the added material is worth >$20 more in purchase price, because the 2002 version is already very good!

How about you all? Have you read Stocks for the Long Run by Siegel? What did you enjoy and what would you change? What are your favorite investment and/or personal finance books?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

Yakezie Blog Swap # 6 Roundup and My Favorite Picks

May 2, 2011
/ Blogging
/ By Jacob A Irwin
/ 2 COMMENTS

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 2 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition

On Friday of last week (29-April-2011), My Personal Finance Journey participated in the 6th Yakezie Blog Swap. In this event, members and challenges of the Yakezie Personal Finance Network paired up and exchanged posts on the common topic of, “if you were homeless, what would you do to improve your situation?”

There were 16 bloggers who participated, and this blog swap was set up as a trail of crumbs. There were four total stops. At each stop, you were sent to the next post until you made it back to the first.

My Favorite Swapped Post

In this blog swap, I really had two favorite posts, each selected for different reasons. Read more about them below!

In my opinion, the most entertaining and well-written post was the one Debt Payer posted at Modern Tightwad. This was a favorite because it reads as a story in first person narrative and is very engaging! – What Would You Do if You Were Homeless?

My favorite post based on the actual content was the article written by The Saved Quarter posted at Debt Payer about Getting Out of Poverty before you are even in it. I really learned a lot from this one!

My Swap

I posted at The Saved Quarter with how I would Improve My Situation If Homeless by working for tips.

Andi B. from Modern Tightwad posted at on my site with a clever idea for bathing – A Homeless Plan to Guard Against Hopelessness.

The Rest

Debt Free Divas posted at FSYA Online about securing shelter first. Poor or Homeless.

FYSA Online posted at Smart Money Focus about using education to help with a Homeless but not Hopeless situation.

Smart Money Focus posted at Life and My Finances, reminding us that the U.S. is still seen as a place of luxury with Thank God I’m Homeless in the U.S.!

Life and My Finances posted at Debt Free Divas with a very smart $4 dollar plan to getting back to comfort. If I was Homeless and Poor.

Khaleef from KNS Financial posted at Money Talks about humbly asking for help and getting back to full recovery.

Money Talks posted at Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance and had an idea for getting immediate cash and food in one fell swoop with I’m Homeless, Now What?

Barbara Friedberg posted at Narrow Bridge with a backup plan for taking on the challenge of poverty with You’re Homeless…Now What?.

Narrow Bridge posted at KNS Financial with How To Recover From Being Broke by first taking responsibility.

Bucksome Boomer posted at Debt Eye about hard work with Poverty Can Teach Lessons for Life.

Debt Eye posted at Retire by 40 with What if You’re Homeless? and mentioned how any job would be worth it.

Retire by 40 posted at The Single Saver with What I Would Do If I Were Homeless and suggested starting a small business.

The Single Saver posted at Bucksome Boomer and mentioned that the best defense is a good offense with How Do You Plan for Financial Disaster?

Be sure to visit each blog and share your thoughts on the topic!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcopapale/382187039/sizes/m/in/photostream/

How You Can Actually Save Money By Using Online Coupons (The Non-Annoying Variety)

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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 2 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition

One of my many financial pet peeves is the copious amount of books or magazines of coupons I receive each week.

Why is this one of my pet peeves?

Essentially, the coupon system in the USA is out of control. Coupons have become more of a way of getting us to spend more money that we don’t have at stores we would never step foot in (or be on their webpage), as opposed to what they should be – a way to save money on things we already need to buy and for stores to reward customers. On top of this, all of the different coupon packets sent to me each week (Red Plum and Valpak, just to name a few) go directly in the garbage and fill up our landfills.

Let me give you all a quick example of the uselessness of the current system.

Today, I received a Hometown Magazine booklet of coupons. I just flipped through the booklet cover to cover, and I did not see one coupon for something that I already needed to buy this coming week. However, there were plenty of good looking deals to get me to spend more money on things I don’t need, like going out to eat at the China King Buffet and getting $2 off, getting 5% off car repair work if the repair job is over $350, or getting a discount price on a golf club membership for $1799 per year.

Clearly, this type of coupon system is not working. What is a needed in today’s shopping environment is a searchable interface where you can actually find deals for things you are looking for.

But, There is a Promising Solution!

Online coupons providers are becoming a very promising resource for consumers to “strike back” and save some real money. One of these resources that I was recently exposed to was PromotionCode.org.

This system allows you to search for the specific store you normally shop at (whether it be Target, Amazon, Wal-Mart, Kroger, etc) and find coupons on the actual items you normally buy. There is also a cool feature that allows you to sign up to receive new coupons via email when they are posted or get coupons that specifically offer free shipping on online orders.

An example of how this system can be used is as follows:

As you all know, my favorite place to buy cheap, used financial books is through Amazon.com. And, one of the books that I already know I want to buy is The Power of Passive Investing by Rick Ferri. By simply searching for Amazon, PromotionCode.org’s system directs me to the Amazon coupon codes page. Listed on this page are several 5% off promo codes that can be used to reduce the cost of buying this book. It also lists the success rate that other users have had with the codes, as well as a system that allows you to report faulty or expired deals.

This is definitely something that would never be possible to obtain from a ValPak booklet.

How about you all? Do you ever use the coupons that you receive in the mail? Have you had good luck with online coupons recently? What resources do you use?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/24218656@N03/4587200719/sizes/m/in/photostream/

A Homeless Plan to Guard Against Hopelessness

April 29, 2011
/ Invest & Retire
/ By Jacob A Irwin
/ 15 COMMENTS

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 2 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition

The following is a guest post from Andi B. with Modern Tightwad. It was written as part of a Yakezie blog swap, where different participants in the Yakezie Personal Finance Network partnered up and traded posts on the common topic of “What would you do to improve your situation if you were homeless?”

You can view my post today over at The Saved Quarter (another great Yakezie blog) by clicking here.

A Homeless Plan to Guard Against Hopelessness

A couple years ago, our financial situation was dire, and my husband and I talked about what we would do if we were homeless. One of my friends was kind enough to tell me, “You’ll never be homeless because you have friends,” but I know better than to depend on the unending kindness of friends or family, or to believe that we cannot be crippled by unknowable circumstance. Ben Franklin’s notion of spending a maximum of three days with friends is probably on the short end, but there can still be a limit to how long you can crash.

Homeless Plan:

Our working assumption is that my husband and I have lost our jobs, our home, and have no savings. For the sake of argument, we also assumed that we don’t have any friends we can stay with for any duration.

Step 1: Sell our second car.

We have two cars, a 2000 Mitsubishi Mirage and my husband’s 1969 Datusn 510 wagon. We would sell the Mirage because we could get $1000-1500 to put into savings. Although it is our “nicer” car, the seats in the Datsun fold down to accomodate a twin size air mattress, and we could sleep in there if need be.

Step 2: Sell everything else.

If we’re at the point where we may have to stay in our car, a PS3 and a television is unnecessary. I’m pretty sure that we can scrape together another few hundred easily. This should give us up to $2,000 in our savings account, including the money from the car.

Step 3: Make a sleeping decision.

With the car, our tent, and the money we’d converted from savings, we could temporarily live in a campground. We could stay in a by-the-week hotel. A priority would be looking for work that included housing. For example, my husband and I both have years of experience in the hotel industry so we would look for a motel or bed & breakfast management position that included an apartment.

Step 4: Get all the help we can.

I’m hoping that at this point, we’ve already applied for unemployment. We would also apply for food assistance. If we managed to obtain food assistance, we would utilize local assistance matching programs.

The Portland Farmer’s Market, for example, matches up to $5 each week for assistance recipients to obtain fresh local food stuffs. We have a dog and would look to the Pongo Fund for help in taking care of him. Many would advocate giving him up, but since he is my assistance dog, that’s not really an option.

Step 5: Prioritize food.

Outside of governmental food assistance, I would also approach local farms and ask if we could help with the harvest or work at their farmer’s market booth in exchange for a share of food, or if we could glean. Gleaning is the process of walking through the fields and picking food that the harvesters miss, food that would go bad if it weren’t for individuals picking through.

Step 6: Focus on finding work.

Part A: Gym Membership

If our sleeping decision doesn’t include bathroom facilities, we decided to get a family gym membership at a local gym. We could get a family membership for $60/month that would provide us with a place to use the bathroom and shower each day. Good hygiene is essential to getting a new job, and a job is needed to get back on our feet. It also may give us something to do for an hour or so each day so we’re not feeling sorry for ourselves.

Part B: “Borrow” an address.

A huge stumbling block for people to get work is to have an address and contact number for employers. If we couldn’t borrow an address from a friend, a local church or non-profit may be able to assist.

Part C: Get a number.

As stated above, it’s nearly impossible to get a job without a contact number. A prepaid cell phone would be in order. Our last phone would have been surrendered. We’ll worry about paying the cancellation fee when we can.

A big issue my husband and I discussed would be our attitudes prior to and during our homeless situation. We would guard against complacency or surrendering to what we felt was inevitable. We would be willing to travel anywhere to find work. Unfortunately, if our situation was due to a severe medical problem, or something else, we may have to consider a different plan. However, we are fortunate that if homelessness was an extreme possibility, we both have family in several parts of the country who would be willing to take us in for a month or so to get a job and get on our feet. Not everyone is that lucky. We also have the humility to ask for help, hopefully before our situation becomes desperate.

Due to our previous financial circumstances, tragedy is always in the back of my mind. We’ve been house-hunting over the past six months, and currently have an offer in on an house with an accessory dwelling unit – a small 300 sf studio apartment. I was comforted by the fact that if something horrible happened and we lost primary income, we could move into the studio, rent out the main house and more than cover our mortgage. Once we discussed what we could do in a worst case scenario, I no longer struggled with worry. Even if something happens and we become homeless, I’m not hopeless.

How about you all? What steps would you take to improve your situation if you were homeless? Have you ever known any one that was homeless?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

First, thank you so much Andi for writing this article. It was very insightful! I’m so sorry that your situation was so dire several years ago. Was that caused by loss of a job?
@ Jobs that include housing – The idea of finding a job that provides housing is a very interesting one that I had not previously considered. I know that resort and cruise ship workers get housing providers, which enables them to save a lot of money. I didn’t know that normal hotel workers could stay in the hotel though for free. Do a lot of hotels do that?
@ Unemployment benefits and food sources – In writing my post over at The Saved Quarter, I completely forgot to mention the idea of applying for unemployment assistance and food assistance from the government. The idea of “gleaning” for food is innovative as well!
@ Idea of asking for help – I’m really glad that you mentioned the idea of being humble enough to actually ask for help. I think that is something that gets a lot of people in trouble (even with debt problems), because help is available, they are just too stubborn or ashamed to admit to needing it.

***Photo courtesy of http://images.cdn.fotopedia.com/flickr-4307313294-hd.jpg

FREE Netflix For All For 1 Month!

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 2 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition

Good day folks! The Netflix Santa Claus is here!

Ok, not really, but I do have four 1-month free trials of Netflix’s DVD movie service. And after all, who doesn’t like to get free stuff?! That’s right – no one!

As many of you all know, I am a big Netflix fan and heavy Netflix user. I have written several previous posts about Netflix (place details here). I just recently watched the entire 7-season Star Trek Voyager series from Netflix! It only took me 4 months!

The 1-month trial comes with no obligation, and you can cancel at any time during the 1 month trial membership. However, it’s important to remember that if you don’t cancel before the end of the trial term, your credit card (which you have to enter to participate in the free trial, but will not be billed) will be charged the $7.99 or $9.99 monthly fee for the Watch Instantly (unlimited) or 1-DVD-Out-At-A-Time plans, respectively, that you selected upon signing up.

Having said that, listed below are the details for how to redeem your 1-month free trial:

Go to Netflix.com/tellafriend
Enter one of the four priority codes listed below before June 15^th, 2011.

M829180488735
M869110488775
M513995667115
M899120488725

When you use one of the codes above, do your fellow readers a favor and post a quick comment below letting them know which code you took out of the running. Thanks!

How about you all? Do you currently use Netflix to save money on your monthly cable bill? If not, how much do you pay for your TV channels?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.consumerqueen.com/consumerqueenwp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/netflix.gif

Personality Test Results

April 27, 2011
/ Make Money
/ By Jacob A Irwin
/ 4 COMMENTS

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 2 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition

On April 7^th, JT McGee from Money Mamba came up with the idea for a Yakezie Personality Type Blog Carnival.

The goals of this carnival were as follows: 1) connect Yakezie Personal Finance Blog Network members to one another, and 2) learn about how you operate from the inside out and share with your readers so that they can learn about you as well.

To participate in the Carnival, we were instructed to take the Jung Personality Type test (at the following link – HumanMetrics – Jung Personality Test), answer the 72 questions that it presents, and then research the meaning of the personality type code our answers generate on Google or another resource.

The 72 questions that the test asks do not actually take that long to answer, as they are all require “yes” or “no” responses. The subject matter of the questions involve different topics, ranging from how we feel in crowds to the basic way that we accomplish life’s tasks.

My Result

The personality code that my answers generated was ENFJ – Extraverted Intuitive Feeling Judging.

Found in only 5% of the population, Typelogic.com describes ENFJ’s as “the benevolent pedagogues of humanity.” The primary mode of living for ENFJ’s is focused externally, where issues are handled according how you feels about them, or how they relate to your personal value system.

For ENFJ’s, the deepest level of personal satisfaction comes from making things happen for other people. Typically, they do this through understanding, supporting, and encouraging others. They are often more reserved about exposing their beliefs than other extroverted people, because expressing them might interfere in bringing out the best in others. In this way, they are often good mentors and teachers.

ENFJ’s have an good ability to take interest in people, identify their strengths, and draw that strength out of a sometimes reserved interior. ENFJ’s, or teachers as they are sometimes called, identify easily with others, and often find themselves mimicking the characteristics of those around them.

Another somewhat interesting characteristic of this personality type is what was called the “first-shall-be-last open door policy.” What this means is that often times, an ENFJ will be helping one person, and half-way through the conversation, the phone rings, and someone else is requesting help from the ENFJ. The ENFJ will then deal with the 2^nd person first until their need is stabilized before returning to assist the 1^st person that came asking for help.

My Analysis of the Result

In my opinion, this personality type describes me with shockingly scary accuracy (at least in my opinion). Who knew this test could predict so well by asking such vague “yes” or “no” questions?!

First, I do rely heavily on my feelings in getting things done. This is one of the reasons that I have chosen a career in the health field because it is important to me to feel I am making a difference in something. For me, it is of the upmost importance to have my heart in what I do. If this is not the case, I most likely will not be able to do it successfully.

I also agree with this result because perhaps the time when I feel most “fulfilled” in life is when I have either 1) brought out a hidden talent in someone, 2) been able to reach someone on a personal level that is not receptive to personal interactions anyway, and 3) when I have helped someone accomplish a task or learn something new. Even though I do enjoy helping others learn, I definitely would not be teacher material, at least for the time being (in the sense of a 1^st grade teacher, etc).

One of my previous jobs involved training process operators to run different cleaning and sterilization processes of the vaccine line I worked on. Even though this was not actually my main responsibility, I derived a lot of satisfaction from guiding the operators to learn something new. And, I spent many hours doing so. Sometimes, I would focus too much on training others and would get some “professional reminders” to remember to commit time to a more independent project that was supposed to be 30% of my job.

How I Interpret This Result In The Context Of A Career

In the context of career pursuits, I think that since ENFJ’s derive the most satisfaction from enabling others to perform at their best, it will be important for me to find a job where I can guide and mentor others. This wouldn’t even need to be in a boss-employee way, just as long as I was able to transfer my knowledge to others. I think this is more important to me than actually doing the work myself.

Several Famous ENFJ’s

And, last but not least, for your viewing pleasure, listed below are several famous ENFJ’s from the history books.

Abraham Lincoln
Ronald Reagan
Barack Obama
Sean Connery
Francois Mitterand
Dick Van Dyke
Andy Griffith
William Aramony, former president of United Way
Gene Hackman (Superman, Antz)
Dennis Hopper (Speed)
Brenda Vaccaro
Craig T. Nelson (Coach)
Diane Sawyer (Good Morning America)
Randy Quaid (Bye Bye, Love; Independence Day)
Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive)
Michael Jordan, NBA basketball player

How about you all? Have you taken the Jung Typology Personality Test? What was your resulting type? Did you agree with the description?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.hr-specialists.eu/assets/images/poze-site/entrepreneurial-personality-test.png

The Journey After Bankruptcy

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Today’s guest post comes to us from Chris Mullen.

The Journey After Bankruptcy

In 2004, the laws regarding bankruptcy began to change. A bill was passed for how bankruptcy would be handled, which came into effect in 2005. Part of this financial bill was to make sure anyone submitting for bankruptcy would first take a debt management course. This was inputted into the bill to lower the frequency with which some were filing for bankruptcy. Given the high rate of bankruptcies filed, the government felt a need to make some changes.

For those that filed seven years, ago their journey may be completed or at least closer to the right path. Once a bankruptcy is filed and the debts discharged, one’s credit is highly affected. First, the credit scores are already low given the need for bankruptcy, and they will remain low.

During this time, a person has to consider what debts they should take on and what they should stay away from. For example, credit cards can help improve one’s credit scores over time, but they can also create a new debt situation. A bankruptcy on record also means high interest rates on credit cards, loans, and mortgages. The only type of loan that may not be affected by the bankruptcy are the pay loans with no credit check. The rates would be the same for any borrower, which is often quite high to begin with.

It is best for someone that has filed for bankruptcy to take the seven years the bankruptcy is on their credit record to improve their credit with rise money lending practices. In this case, one should have a prepaid credit card that will report to the credit bureaus. They should also make regular payments on a mortgage or car loan.

It is essential to have companies reporting good things about one’s outstanding credit. No reporting is just as bad as the scores will not increase, but often remain the same. Once it has been seven years, the bankruptcy can no longer be used against a person for credit, meaning interest rates can be comparable to the repaired credit amount one has in their financial reports over what it was nearer the bankruptcy.

How about you all? Have you or any one you know ever filed for bankruptcy? If so, was it Chapter 7 or 13? Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

@ The debt management class requirement for those filing for bankruptcy – I actually had no idea that this was required! Did everyone else know that this was necessary in order to file bankruptcy? I’m also curious as to whether the government pays for this or whether the payment for it gets lumped in to your debt that will be erased with the filing.
@ The concept of bankruptcy in general – To me (maybe it is just me that feels this way), bankruptcy, at times, almost seems too good to be true. The concept that your debts can be totally wiped clean after getting in way over your head is simply amazing! And, your credit report only suffers for 7 years? This seems too good to be true. OK, I know it can be argued that the people that experience bankruptcy won’t be able to get favorable financing in order to own their own home or start new businesses. However, in my opinion, it seems that the majority of people reaching bankruptcy probably weren’t on track to one of these goals in the first place.

So, I’ll leave you all with one question I have – are the penalties for bankruptcy severe enough currently? Or, do you think they need to be tightened to deter it was occurring?

***Photo courtesy of http://www.eurodebt.com/images/bankruptcy_images/bankruptcy_service_300.jpg

MicroMaximus – Reward Checking Account Transaction Tool – Review

April 25, 2011
/ Make Money
/ By Jacob A Irwin
/ 4 COMMENTS

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Being the personal finance nerd I am, I am always on the look-out around the Internet for new tools to use to help me streamline my finances and take advantage of the many free money promos available.

One of these tools that I’ve been exposed to recently is MicroMaximus.

At a high level, MicroMaximus is a service that helps to reduce the headaches caused by the “nick-picky” monthly transaction requirements present in a number of the rewards checking accounts out there.

Now that I’ve told you about MicroMaximus at a high level, let’s take a look at some of the finer details.

Reward Checking Accounts and Bonus Offers

To be perfectly honest, when I first landed on the MicroMaximus site, it was a little hard to tell what the site’s tools were for, as I initially thought it was a bill-payment tool. However, with a little understanding about the nature of some of the reward checking accounts out there, it becomes easy to see how the site can add value to one’s daily/monthly life!

Reward checking accounts started as a way for smaller banks and credit unions to compete with larger national banks, and therefore, you won’t really find the best reward checking accounts at large national banks. Below are two resources where you can find reward checking accounts in your area:

These rewards checking accounts offer super-favorable terms, such as low fees and HIGH interest rates. However, in order to receive these favorable results, you have to meet certain criteria. And, many times, one of these criteria is a minimum number of monthly debit transactions.

An example of one of these rewards checking accounts for my state of Virginia can be found at the following link – 1st Commonwealth Bank of Virginia – Rewards Checking Account Details. In order to get their free Rewards Checking Account, which offers 4.01% APY, you have to meet the qualifications described below:

Use your Debit Card at least 12 times each month,
And, complete at least one bill pay or create one direct deposit/ACH transaction and sign up for eStatements.

What About National Banks?

With the increased competition in today’s banking atmosphere, I am happy to report that I was not able to find any national banks that currently require a minimum number of monthly transactions for personal checking accounts (business accounts are a different story – see below). However, it is important to note that none of these are able to come close to matching the higher interest rates offered by the local banks. Even Bank of America, the bank with perhaps the least favorable terms of all, did not feature this requirement for personal accounts! Links to the banks I researched can be found below so that you can have a look for yourself:

Bank of America Checking Accounts
ING Direct Checking Account
Ally Bank Checking Account
Wachovia Checking Accounts
US Bank Checking Accounts

However, many of these same banks offer business checking accounts and free money bonus offers of anywhere from $25-$200 when you first sign up for their service AND meet several specific terms during the initial account-holding period. Some of the typical requirements for business checking accounts and getting this free money are shown below:

Spend $____ during the first three months of opening the account,
Set up a direct deposit to the checking account for your paycheck,
Maintain a certain average monthly minimum balance,
And often, make X number of transactions each month.

For me especially, since I have so many different checking, savings, and credit card accounts, the third requirement can be quite a pain! And, it is this third requirement (and the monthly transaction requirement for local bank Reward Checking Accounts) where MicroMaximus can come in handy and help you!

How MicroMaximus Works

MicroMaximus helps you achieve the third requirement above in the following way:

After you sign up for a new checking account, you request and subsequently receive a Visa, Mastercard, or Discover debit card.
You then enter the details of your debit card (name, billing address, credit card number, expiration date, and CVV number) in to the MicroMaximus system.
After clicking the “create account” button, you then can click on the “Transactions” tab.
From this screen, you then can schedule automatic $1 debit card transactions at the frequency you need as required by your rewards checking account.
The benefit of this is that you then don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re going to meet the minimum transaction requirement for your accounts since you’ve automated everything! Talk about a headache relief medicine!
The $1 transaction is paid directly to MicroMaximus. So, in effect, this $1 is the per transaction price/fee for the service.

Note: I had thought that maybe MicroMaximus was some sort of bill-pay service. However, it is not. It is simply a way to schedule small $1 transactions (paid to MicroMaximus) to fulfill reward checking account requirements.

Recommendations for How to Optimize Use of MicroMaximus

Since times are tight with the economy nowadays, and there is the $1 per transaction fee involved with this service, there are several things to keep in mind in order to maximize the value achieved from this service. These are discussed below:

First, remember to exhaust all normal recurring bill-payment options.

What this recommendation means is that you should first set up automatic payments on your rewards checking account debit card to pay your normal monthly bills before tapping in to the power of MicroMaximus.
For example, let’s say that in order to get a $100 bonus for opening a checking account from Wachovia, you must make 10 debit transactions per month. I would first make sure that I link up my checking account debit card to pay 1) my Netflix monthly bill, 2) my electric bill, 3) my monthly donation to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, 4) my cell phone bill, and 5) my gas bill BEFORE using MicroMaximus to automatically schedule the remaining 5 transactions.
In this way, you minimize the cost involved.

Second, make sure that the cost of using MicroMaximus is less than the bonus/rewards you receive from your checking account.

This may seem obvious, but I just wanted to emphasize it to be sure. You should make certain that the rewards you receive from your checking account are greater than your costs.
For example, let’s consider the hypothetical example of a checking account bonus of only $25 that requires 25 transactions per month. Naturally, if you have to use MicroMaximus to schedule 20 of those transactions, it will cost you $20, and most likely wouldn’t be worth it. However, if you are going to receive a $200 bonus by making 20 monthly transactions, MicroMaximus would be well worth your while!
See what I’m getting at? Just use your common sense and you’ll be fine!

I hope you’ve learned something about this new tool today, and definitely let me know if you have any questions.

How about you all? Have you ever tried MicroMaximus? What other “cool” personal finance online tools do you use?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.creditcarddeposit.com/guide/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/rewards.png

All posts by Jacob A Irwin