All posts by Jacob A Irwin
1000 Visitors and Domain Name Purchase
Ways to Maximize Benefits of Your Credit Card – Part 2
My Money Blog Homepage
In Part 1 of this series (see link below), I explained a method for getting the most from your credit card by slowly requesting increases to your available credit limit.
Ways to Maximize Credit Card Benefits – Part 1
Part 2 of this series will focus on another, and probably even more important, way to manipulate your credit card company for your financial gain.
2) Tip Number 2 – Request credit card interest rate decreases
A very beneficial lesson that one of my college professors taught me (please note that this was the one class that I took at a community college and probably learned more about personal finance than in my regular finance classes) was to call every so often to your credit card company and simply request a decrease in your credit card interest rate.
I tried this a few months ago and was able to get my interest rate decreased from 19% to 11%. Wow! That is a lot of money if you ever are someone who has to carry a balance from month to month! The steps I used that worked fairly effectively are shown below:
1) Turn your credit card over, call the 1-800 customer service number on the back of your card.
2) Press whatever button you need to in order to talk to a real live breathing person.
3) Ask for the department that handles interest rate level requests.
4) Tell the person that you are considering switching to another brand of credit card and that you would like to request a decrease in your interest rate.
5) They will process the information and give you the result!
It is that simple!
What’s the right frequency to call and request this type of thing? For this type of request, I only call every year or so because I don’t actually have any use for a lower interest rate because I pay off my credit card in full each month.
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Keep on learning!
Jacob
Ways to Maximize Benefits of Your Credit Card – Part 1
Have fun and keep on learning!
Jacob
Go to Ways to Maximize Benefits of Your Credit Card – Part 2 – “Request interest rate decreases”
Frozen Vs. Fresh vs. Canned Vegetables
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2398100/are_frozen_vegetables_healthy.html
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Jacob
My Money Blog MySpace Page Created!
- Loan calculator
- Listings of free stuff online!
- Personal finance calculators
- Rich Man a Day Tips
- When Will You Be a Millionaire Calculator
- Tips for How to Make Money for Teenagers
- And much more!
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Cost of Pet Products
http://www.aspca.org/adoption/pet-care-costs.html
http://www.moneyunder30.com/the-true-cost-of-pet-ownership
The total that both websites come up with is that the total cost of owning a pet for the 1st year is $1200-$1500. Wow! The key takeaways from this investigation, for me, are shown below.
Key Takeaways
1) Before buying or adopting a dog, be certain that you can financially committ to the animal for its lifetime. This could indicate that you will spend ~$10,000 total over the lifetime of the animal.
2) Determine if you are capable of getting the emotional return on investment from having a pet. Make sure that you truly will enjoy it and are not just doing it “because everyone else is,” etc.
3) When buying pet products, SHOP, SHOP, SHOP, and COMPARE, COMPARE, COMPARE. There will no doubt be a wide range of product/price alternatives to consider. Also, realize that many times, products sold at discount stores such as Wal-Mart or grocery stores can cost significantly less than the same products at fancier pet stores.
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Keep on learning!
Jacob
New YouTube Channel Created for My Money Blog followers
I just created a YouTube Channel/group where I will review financial movies on YouTube that I find interesting. You can access and subscribe to the Channel at the link below.
Handy Tool to Assist in Performing Phil Town Rule #1 Calculations
If anyone has given Phil Town’s system of investing (from his book, Rule #1, a Simple Investing Strategy in 15 minutes per week) a signficant attempt, you have no doubt found out that running the numbers to calculate the Big 5 Numbers can be a time-consuming, cumbersome task that leaves you thinking, “There has got to be a better way!”
Well, I found out the other day that indeed THERE IS! It’s called the Stock2Own website, and it is free to use (see link below).
Once you enter the site, you can enter the ticker symbol of any stock that you identify for further investigation. From there, the website then automatically generates agressive, conservative, and middle-of-the-road calculations of the Big 5 Numbers. Additionally, the 3 technical indicator charts discussed in Phil’s book (MACD, Stochastic, and Moving Average) are automatically generated for you to view.
Quite a slick system!
Keep on learning!
Jacob
How do my living expenses compare after switching from living in Virginia to living in the Northeast?
Since recently moving from Virginia to the Northeast (philly suburbs), I frequently get asked how the cost of living compares between the two places. So, here ya go world! :) After all, you have to love how right now, gas in philly is $2.79 per gallon while in Virginia, it is $2.59 per gallon.
Virginia Living Expenses (per month)
A nice, spacious 1 bdrm apartment – $750
Water, trash fee, sewer – included (no extra charge)
Electricity (includes heat) – $50
Internet – $35
VA Total = $835
Philly Suburbs Living Expenses (per month)
A nice, spacious 1 bdrm apartment – $1300
Internet – $38
PECO Electricity bill – $38
Renter’s Insurance – $15
Trash fee – $5
Water service fee – $9
Sewer service fee – $11.14
Gas-cooking fee – $5
Gas Bill (heating) – $31
Electricity processing fee – $17
Gas service fee – $7
Philly total = $1476
As one of my friends would say, FANTASTIC!!!
And the kicker is…get ready for it! There is no adjustment in pay for this cost of living difference…So, by working in a cheaper place, you are basically giving yourself an automatic raise! Food for thought next time you’re searching for jobs.
Ways for Parents to Give Their Kids a Financial Head-Start to Life
I want to preface this section by saying that I do not have any kids of my own and have not tried these techniques out. They are merely good advice that I have read in books over the years.
Ways to Give Your Kids a Financial Head Start in Life
In my opinion, the best way to give your kids a financial head start in life is merely to get them exposed to the general idea of finance at an early age, instead of having it be a taboo topic at home. Therefore, any effort is by nature good, but listed below are a few specific methods that I thought would be useful to share.
1. Buy your child 1 share of a stock they would be interested in. The key here is that the stock has to be something they will be interested in following. For example, if your child really enjoys Disney/Pixar movies, buy them a share of Disney stock (DIS ticker symbol). If he or she likes board games, Barbie dolls, Fischer, or Hot Wheels, buy them a share of Mattel (MAT ticker symbol). Use that share of stock to teach them all that you can about the stock market and investing!
2. Give your child (if they are old enough) a task to do to help with doing your taxes – Be sure that the only thing they know about tax time is that YOU DON’T LIKE TO DO THEM AND THAT THE IRS IS TRYING TO TAKE YOUR MONEY. This promotes negative associations for your child around money and something as certain as doing taxes.
3. Keep finance/money an open topic around the house. So many times, the only things that children hear fro you about money is the negative things such as not being able to afford soething, etc. Keep the lines of communication open.
4. Open up college savings fund. Everyone hopes that their child will get a full scholarship to go to college, but the odds are not enough in your favor to take that chance. By opening a college savings fund through an institution like Vanguard, you can tax advantage of tax deferred growth within the account, while still having the luxury to direct the investments the way you want. Remember, you will want to match the maturity of the investment instrument with the time horizon associated with whenever you child will be going to college in order to maximize returns. The link below takes you to the section of the Vanguard site where you can obtain information about 529 education savings accounts. Open one!
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/whatweoffer/college/overview?Link=redlabel
Important Tip To Remember:
When calculating a student’s need for financial aid for higher education, it benefits the student to have as little money to his/her name as possible.
In this case, it means that it is best to place the college savings fund account in you, the parents, name instead of your child’s. This is due to the fact that parent’s are assumed to use 5-6% of their assets to pay for a child’s college education, while the student is expected to use 35% of their assets.
5. Open a Roth IRA for them whenever they first obtain earned income – See my previous posts on reasons to start investing at an early age to see the logic behind this technique. There is no minimum age limit (see article at link below) to when you can open a Tradition IRA, as long as your child has earned income. If you own your own business, even better! You can give your child earnings for jobs he or she performs for your business.
http://www.kiplinger.com/basics/archives/2002/03/story28.html
Useful tip from David Bach’s Smart Couples Finish Rich 
book:
Tell your child that if he or she opens up a Roth IRA and contributes to it, you will match them Dollar for Dollar. This will provide an even greater incentive for them to invest.
6. Show your child the power of compound interest, using the table below. Be sure to point out how little money it takes to accumulate $1MM if you start at an early age.
7. Give your child the gift of want – Encourage your child that if he or she wants to buy something, it is necessary for them to earn the money themselves. This can be done either buy starting your own business venture or getting a job.
This topic is discussed in more detail on a recent post at the following link – My Money Blog – Is it Good to Give Your Child An Allowance?
Keep the ideas coming and good luck!
Jacob