My Personal Finance Journey

Category Archives for Make Money

One Call, Save Thousands On Your Credit Card Bill

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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 5 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition


Today’s guest post comes to us from Kevin. Kevin is a writer for www.debteye.org, a fellow Yakezie group participant.  Debteye is a place where you can get unbiased opinions on anything related to personal finance.  Kevin previously owned a debt settlement company prior to joining the DebtEye team. He is a certified debt specialist and also works with credit counselors across the nation.

One Call, Save Thousands On Your Credit Card Bill
Did you know that a one simple phone call to your creditor can potentially save you thousands of dollars?  Creditors don’t have an incentive to lower your interest unless you ask for it.  However, there are some basic criteria that we can assume that a borrower needs to have. 
Typically, banks will work with cardholders who have a proven track history of timely payments and carry some sort of balance.  This means that payments have never been more than 30 days late, and the payment amounts are MORE than the minimum required amount.

Banks don’t want to lose you if you’re a well-paying customer, and they’ll do everything they can to keep you on-board.  Also, if your current interest rate is already pretty low (my guess would be 10% and under), you probably won’t have much of a chance getting them reduced. 

So how exactly do you get your interest rate reduced? 
The first step is to get a copy of your most recent credit card statement.  Find out the EXACT interest rate you’re currently paying.  Also, if you’ve been receiving “pre-approved” credit card mails in the past, I would look for those and keep it around (they will come in handy when negotiating your rate). 
Next, find the customer service number on your statement or back of your credit card.  This number can usually be found on the front, and it is usually listed on the back of your statement as well.  When the customer service representative answers the call, tell them that you want to speak with someone who can help you lower your interest rate.   After they connect you to the appropriate person, I would probably start off the conversation with something along this line:
You: “Hi my name is ______, I’m calling today because I’ve been a loyal cardholder with your bank for ____ years.  I noticed I was paying ___% on my credit card, and I was hoping you could lower the interest rate.  The reason I’m asking is because ______ (name of another credit card company) actually offered me 0% for 18 months if I transferred my balance over.  As you can probably see, I’ve never missed a single payment with you guys.  Is this something you can help me with?”


Most of the time, this will do the trick.  Your creditor will lose you as a customer if you transfer your balance over.  This means no more monthly interest payments for years!  It’s important that you don’t advise the representative that you’re in some type of financial hardship.

While it is true that banks have an incentive to help struggling customers, banks typically have different types of program for hardship candidates.  These programs will CLOSE your account and can impact your credit report. 

If your lender does not cooperate with you, don’t give up.  It may take a few months before they decide to reduce your interest rate.  Be persistent and be patient!

How about you all? Have you tried to negotiate a lower interest rate on a credit card or other debt account? Were you successful? What resistance did you encounter? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

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

  • @ Minimum interest rate needed to bother asking for a reduced rate – I definitely agree with the idea that you probably shouldn’t bother asking for a reduced credit card interest rate if your APR is already around 10%. This is most likely the minimum that you can get anyway, so you’re already doing well for yourself and your bank account levels!
  • This same topic will actually be step 3 in my series of helping a friend get out of debt. In that post, I’ll build on several of the topics discussed here! Keep an eye out for that post, on the way soon!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.recessiontips.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/homermad-150×150.gif

$25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway! – "Cheapskates Need Love Too" Edition

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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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For those of you that missed My Personal Finance Journey’s 1st ever giveaway ($10 BP gift card), it was a huge success and was even more fun to put on!

Thanks to everyone for participating. Lethea (the big winner), just emailed me today to let me know that her $10 BP gift card is on the way in the mail! Congrats!

Since we had so much fun with the 1st giveaway, let’s do another, shall we?! This time, we’ll be giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card. This giveaway is made possible by one of my Yakezie friends, Barb from  Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance. Barb runs one of my favorite investing personal finance sites because she shares logical investing strategies that can followed by normal folks like you and me. Please stop by and visit!

The theme of this giveaway will be to commemorate the exciting kickoff of the Cheapskate Jake’s Frugal Ramblings guest posting series on My Personal Finance Journey.

For those of you that missed the introductory posts (see links below to the first two Frugal Ramblin’s in the series), Cheapskate Jake is one of my “re-fined” friends from my home state, Arkansas. In this series, he will share with us his own unique version of frugal living tips. I hope you can stop by from time to time on my non-giveaway days to read what he has to say!

How To Enter In The Running To Win The  $25 Amazon Gift Card – Entry ends March 7th, 2011 at 11:59 PM

To enter the running for the $25 Amazon Gift Card, simply follow the instructions below.

1) Write a comment on this post below, sharing a story and/or the practices of the cheapest cheapskate (person) you know if your life. Some examples are listed below to get those creative juices flowing!

 Example 1: “My mother is so obsessed with saving money on electricity that she UNPLUGS the clocks when going to bed. Who needs to tell time while they sleep, right?”

Example 2: Or…”One of my friend’s dad’s sets the AC on 85 degrees F in the Texas summers. It’s so hot in that house that I can barely keep my eyes open!”

Example 3: “My boyfriend sneaks bottles of liquor on to the cruise ships because he doesn’t like to pay for drinks on the boat. He empties a bottle of brown mouth wash, fills it with whiskey, and then even adds mint food flavoring to make it smell like mint mouthwash.”

2) Be sure to include your email address so that we can contact you to notify you if you win! Limit one entry per person.

3) When the giveaway is over 3 weeks from today (on March 7th, 2011 at 11:59 PM), I will select the top 10 stories/comments and send them to our two judges, Crystal @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff and Sandy @ Yes, I Am Cheap (see more information below). They will then rank each story on a scale of 1-5, and the commenter with the highest score will win and be notified by email!

Have fun and please contact me if you have any questions!

About Our Distinguished Judges (Both from the Yakezie Group)

Crystal @ Budgeting In The Fun Stuff

Budgeting In The Fun Stuff is about the musings of a late-twenties woman, Crystal, who lives in Houston, TX with her husband and two dogs. Both her and her husband were raised by financially savvy parents who taught them the ins and outs of personal finance early on. Despite mistakes, their emergency fund and budget helped them reach their goals while having a good time too!

Sandy @ Yes, I Am Cheap

Yes I Am Cheap is about the financial journey of a 32 year old woman, Sandy, in a long term relationship and up to her ears in some serious debt. Follow along on her site as she begs, borrows and steals, ah, tries to figure out different income steams, while reducing her debt and building her savings. Enjoy!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.gift-card-direct.com/images/corporate-gift-card-25.png

Cheapskate Jake’s Frugal Ramblin’s # 2 – Get Free Continuing Education With Seminars at Your Local University

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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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Greetin’s my fellow cheapskate kin! It’s your good friend, Cheapskate Jake, here on this fine mornin’ we’re havin’ today to bring you my 2nd frugal ramblin’.

That’s right! There was such a good response to the first ramble, that Jacob actually let me come on his blog twice in one week. See, he does have a heart after all!

Note: For those of ya’ll that missed the first posting in this series and are unacquainted with me, you can read about the details in the introductory post at the link below.

Cheapskate Jake’s Frugal Ramblin’s

As usual, I’m comin’ to ya today from a computer lab in Little Rock, Arkansas because we don’t get that high-speed internet stuff out at my home in Frugal Holler’.

The topic of today’s Ramblin’ is continuing education through seminars. 

Since I didn’t know what continuing education was before today, I had to look it up in the only research source I ever use, Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, continuing education is education for people outside of the traditional schoolin’ age.

Since I didn’t make it past the 5th grade, as you can imagine, I would just about rather take a double dose of the clap than have to learn anything else. But, I know that Jacob has a lot of overachievers readin’ this here tablet, so I wanted to fill ya’ll in on a cheap way to keep those educational juices flowing after you start working.


There is a very good untapped source of FREE learnin’ to be had from somewhere ya’ll may never have wanted to see again – your local university.

What’s this source of learnin’, ya’ll might be askin’? It’s called a seminar!

For some reason, these academic types like to talk about all kinds of thought-provokin’ things in these seminars. And many a time, they are very cutting edge and can be beneficial to know for the average joe/jill like you and me! Even better yet, they are free!

How Do You Find Out About Seminars Offered At My Local University?


While this sounds all well and good, you’re probably wonderin’ how exactly you can find out about these educational happenins’. Lucky for us, these institutions have made it very easy to find out about these seminars because the people presenting actually WANT to get their new ideas out to people.

The best way to start is by doing a Google search for “University Name + subject area + seminar.” If that doesn’t fetch ya’ what ya’ want, you can then find the academic department’s website that you are interested in (example – Finance department), and then look for a list of upcoming department “events.”


Example

For example, say you lived in the town where the University of Arkansas is located, and were interested in learning more about finance. To find a list of the seminars offered by the finance department at the University of Arkansas, simply type in “University of Arkansas finance seminar” in Google, click enter, and off you go!

You then get taken to this page, which lists out the location, time, date and subject of upcoming seminars. Looks like there’s a really cool looking seminar coming up in April about something called, “The Halloween Effect,” where higher stock returns are gained in November-April than the rest of the year. That looks mighty right interestin’ all right. I might have to load up the buggy and go up the road to listen to that.

I just hope the wife, Inez, will let me have a night off from the kids. She’s been mighty busy with her wrestlin’ refereein’ these days.

How about you all? Have you ever attended any sort of continuing education classes or seminars at your local university? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

    ***Photo courtesy of http://qis.ucf.edu/img/photos/classroom.jpg

    Earn An Automatic 25% Return – $50 Free Money When You Open And Fund an ING Direct IRA By February 7, 2011

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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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    Interested in a FREE $10 BP Rewards Card? Click here to find out how you can win one!


    Morning frugal friends! Boy, do I have a nifty little free money promotion for you today! If there’s one thing I love, it’s finding out about free money!


    But, you have to act quickly (before February 7th in fact), to take advantage of this one!


    ING Direct, one of my favorite online high-yield money market savings account providers (I currently have my Dream Basket savings account with them), is currently offering a $50 bonus when you open a new IRA with them by February 7th, 2011 and fund it with $200.

    Simply follow the instructions below to take advantage of this offer. I just processed mine last night!

    • Go to retiremyway.com/50
    • Open either a Roth or Traditional IRA and fund it with at least $200 by February 7th.
      • You can choose either a CD or a adjustable rate savings account option. Personally, I would recommend the savings account because the interest rate will change depending on current interest rate. 
      • Since the current interest rates are so low, it doesn’t make much sense to lock in such a low interest rate in a CD.
    • That’s it! ING Direct will then send you your $50 by February 28th.

    A couple of notes on this:
    • Typically, I would not be a fan of opening up a bank IRA because I would not be able to invest it in equities and other mutual funds. However, since they are offering $50 free money, I can simply treat this as the 5% cash portion of my overall asset allocation/investment strategy. That’s an automatic 25% return for doing nothing! 
    • Most likely, I will never touch this money again until I retire. But, I’m all right with that since it is such a small amount of money
    • ING Direct IRA’s are 1) FDIC insured up to $250k, and 2) Have no fees or minimum balance requirements.

    How about you all? Have you taken advantage of any free money bank or credit card promotions lately? 


    Share your experiences by commenting below!


    ***Photo courtesy of http://marketbeast.com/images/ad_column_ing_direct.jpg

    Withholdings and Estimated Taxes: Avoid A Big Surprise At Tax Time!

    My Personal Finance Journey Homepage

    Today’s guest posting comes to us from Alan T. Hostetler, CPA. Alan’s accounting practice, Hostetler Stott, CPA, provides tax preparation and planning for individuals, small businesses, and informational returns for non-profits. 
    Visit his website at the following link to find out more! Hostetler Stott, CPA.

    Withholdings and Estimated Taxes:  Avoid a big surprise at tax time!
    Tax filing season is right around the corner and many taxpayers dread this annual ritual.  Not only can filing a tax return be a tedious administrative chore; it can also lead to an unpleasant surprise if a tax liability is due.  Sending in extra money with your return is always a bummer, but the opposite can be upsetting as well.  If you end up with a large refund you may be wondering why you effectively let the government borrow your money while you struggled with cash flow throughout the year.  The following are some common questions I hear from taxpayers regarding withholdings and payments and some explanation that I hope you will find useful.

    My employer takes out my taxes for me so isn’t it their fault if my withholdings are wrong?

    Occasionally employers do make mistakes in withholding and it is important that you communicate with them if you feel something was done in error.  However, employees are responsible for providing correct information on their form W-4 Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate and the equivalent form for state withholdings when they are hired.  If your address, marital status, or allowance information changes at any time, make sure you inform your employer. Providing fraudulent information (or failing to provide the required information) on your W-4 form may result in penalties of up to $1,000 or imprisonment, so you really don’t want to lie on this form.
     
    If you itemize your taxes, it is a good idea to update this form on an annual basis.  Page two of the form W-4 includes a worksheet to more closely figure your withholding amounts for taxpayers who expect to itemize their taxes.  Ask your employer for this form or find it on the IRS website.
    If I am self-employed, who takes out my taxes?


    Self employed taxpayers, and those who are owners in a partnership usually need to withhold their own taxes and pay them in the form of estimated tax payments.  The IRS provides 4 payment vouchers on form 1040-ES, which you will send in four times per year with payment on a portion of your expected year-end tax liability.  The IRS divides the year up into 4 periods:  1/01-3/31, 4/01-5/31, 6/01-8/31, and 9/01-12/31.   At each of these cutoff dates, you should calculate your estimated taxable net income from your business (and personal income statement) and compute the amount of tax you expect to pay on this income.  15 days after the end of each period, you need to send in your payment to the address in the instructions on the form.  Alternatively, you may make secure payments online on the IRS’s EFTPS website (www.eftps.gov).

    Why can’t I just wait until year end to pay all my taxes? 


    Even if you are extremely disciplined financially and are able to save up enough to pay your taxes at the end of the year, you should pay throughout the year because you will otherwise likely end up paying penalties on top of your taxes.  The previous paragraph described how to calculate your estimated taxes.  If you do not make adequate estimated tax payments each period, you will be penalized at an annual rate of 4% of the amount you underpaid each period, prorated for the number of days you underpaid your estimated tax payment. 
    How can we make sure that we pay in enough to cover our taxes and avoid a penalty?


    It is nearly impossible to predict your exact yearend tax liability before year end.  Not only can your income and deduction expectations change, but the tax laws affecting your liability may not be fully determined until after year end!  In 2010, we are still waiting to hear from Congress whether or not certain tax deductions will continue.  With all this uncertainty, we can expect to miss the mark a little, but by making careful projections and understanding the rules for tax payments we can avoid big surprises come tax time. 
    There is relief for some newly self-employed taxpayers. The penalty for underpayment of estimated taxes can be avoided by ensuring that your total estimated payments plus any withholdings for the tax year exceed the lower of:

    • 90% of your current year tax minus credits
    • 100% of your prior year tax minus credits (for those making more than $150,000, or $75,000 if married filing separately, this figure increases to 110% of your prior year tax minus credits)
    In other words, plan to pay in at least the amount of tax you paid the prior year (10% more if you have high income) and you won’t need to worry about the penalty.  Just be sure you have enough saved up to cover the additional taxes if you have an exceptionally profitable year!

    Where can I find more information on estimated taxes and withholdings?

    The IRS makes all of their forms, instructions, and publications available online at www.irs.gov.  Here are a few useful links to information on this topic:
    2010 Form W-4 and instructions: http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf
    2010 form 1040-ES and instructions: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf
    EFTPS online federal tax payments: https://www.eftps.gov/eftps/
    IRS Publication 505 “Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax”: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p505/index.html

    How about you all? Have you ever had any big surprises around tax time? If so, how did you handle them? What is the most difficult aspect of tax filing in your opinion? 


    Share your experiences by commenting below!

    Did you like this article? You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at My Personal Finance Journey in your email inbox each evening by clicking the link below and entering your email address. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time.

    Subscribe to My Personal Finance Journey via Email


    ***Photo courtesy of http://cdn.moneyfunk.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/death-and-taxes.jpg

    Getting an Online Masters Degree on a Budget

     

    Today’s guest post comes to us from Bob Hartzell.Enjoy! 

    If you’re past the age of thirty and looking around at a career landscape full of potholes, you may have come to the conclusion that you need a graduate degree of some sort today to get where a bachelor’s degree took you fifteen or twenty years ago.  The job market is full of energetic, bright college graduates who continue to hone their resume skills because they’re getting nowhere in the job search.
    The personal finance blogosphere has more than its share of business school graduates who for one reason or another, have found their niche at the kitchen table with a laptop instead of in a highrise with a corporate logo away up there outside the thirtieth floor.  There’s been a tectonic shift in the job market at every level, in every profession.  So if you’ve hit the proverbial glass ceiling or brick wall in your career path, it might be time to give some thought to a master’s degree and if that sounds like it might make sense, here’s a couple of facts and a few suggestions to take into consideration.
    Fact #1: Graduate school does not have to be an enormous commitment of borrowed resources applied over a couple of years of professional and personal disruption.  With just a simple budget, you can go through a master’s degree program part time, online, while you continue to work.
    Fact #2: There are online graduate programs at hundreds of traditional universities, with more adding distance learning capability every year.  University administrators are doing the math and coming to understand that budget cuts from the state or losses in a private endowment can be partially made up with tuition fees from students who don’t take up classroom seats.  Online education has gone mainstream. The good news for students is that these online courses are taught by the same faculty that teaches on-campus classes, so they will not miss the high-level instruction that universities provide. In addition, their coursework is available around the clock, so they can fit it into their schedules, no matter how hectic they might be.
    Fact #3: There is as much variety in quality among the for-profit schools as among traditional colleges.  Some are diploma mills; some are fully accredited universities with decent graduate programs.  You can get an accredited online master’s degree in nursing from Walden University that is fully acceptable for state licensure as a professional advanced practice nurse.  Some of these schools are the real deal.
    Suggestion #1: Online graduate schools are all around you, so shop ‘em.  If you’re considering, for example, a Masters in Social Work you should start by seeing if one of your state universities has a program because in-state tuition for residents is a lot cheaper than for out of state students.  Florida State has an online MSW degree that is good for licensing in seven states.  In Georgia it’s Valdosta State University.  At Colorado State University there’s a blended program; in California you’ll have to settle for USC – not so cheap but a helluva pedigree.
    Suggestion #2: Don’t discount part time graduate degree programs because they’ve become mainstream too. You’ll be amazed at how many online graduate adult degree programs are designed for working professionals. They make credit transfer something less than a nightmare and give you the flexibility to match your education to your personal life rather than the other way around.  The online MBA from the University of Maryland is for working professionals; if you have five years of managerial experience you may qualify for an accelerated Executive MBA program.
    Suggestion #3: Look for a program that will help you get up to speed.  Many master’s degree programs online provide seminars in the undergraduate course you may lack.  You can get an online Masters in Software Engineering from the University of Maryland that will fold in the undergraduate courses you’ll need in math.   The online Master of Arts in Teaching at University of North Carolina will see to it that you have the undergraduate courses to specialize in the teaching field of your choice.
    Finally, a statement of the obvious: a part time master’s degree program is an affordable option that may not require student loans.   You can find an online graduate degree option that meets your career needs, your expectations for quality, your professional requirements and your budget.  You just need to do your homework.

    How about you all? Have you had any experience with online degree programs? What was your take? Please share your experiences by commenting below!

     

    What You Should Know About Payday Loans

    My Personal Finance Journey Homepage

    Good Thursday morning everyone! Today’s guest post comes to us from Rita. In her article, she gives us some crucial information about payday loans, a topic of which I do not know that much about. Enjoy!

    What You Should Know About Payday Loans 
    They have been around for a few years now, but payday loans are still considered a minority form of lending, perhaps because of the lack of information about what these loans exactly entail.
    In essence, payday loans are designed to fill the gap between pay days for those who find themselves short of money at any point.  They are intended as a short term borrowing solution being repayable between 14 and 31 days, although some lenders will lend for 100 days.  Loan amounts are small compared to traditional loans with most lenders offering loans from $100 to $1500, with some offering more in certain circumstances.  Applying is easy with the majority of lenders having websites and online application forms.  You can also apply for loans in person at various offices and outlets in your area.
    Payday loans have come in for much criticism because of the high rates of interest applied.  Interest rates are typically around 2500% APR which many fear can lead borrowers into serious debt.  It is worth noting that this is the annual rate of interest which would be applied if you borrowed for a full 12 months.  Because payday loans are lent over a short time period the actual cost to you will only be a few dollars.  Do check out loan repayment calculators to find out exactly how much a loan will cost you.
    Repaying your loan can mean sending a post dated check to the lender, setting up a standing order or authorizing the lender to debit your bank account on a certain date.  They are called payday loans because they are intended to be paid back when your next pay check clears.  As a borrower you need to be sure that having paid the loan back you will still have enough to meet your financial needs until the next payday.  These loans are not intended for long term borrowing needs and if you cannot afford to repay the loan on the agreed date then you should talk to the lender about extending the terms.
    There has been much written about payday loan lenders freely lending to anyone who applies.  Whilst there maybe lenders who do this, most will have some criteria which applicants must fulfil before a loan will be approved.  Typically you should be over 18 years of age, in receipt of a regular pay check and a U.S resident with a valid bank account.  Some lenders may conduct a credit check but most do not meaning that even if you have a bad credit score you can still be approved.  Once you loan has been approved it can be transferred to your bank account within 24 hours to 2 working days.

    Thanks for reading – Rita

    How about you all? What’s your take on payday loans? Have you ever tried using them?

    Did you like this article? You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at My Personal Finance Journey in your email inbox each evening by clicking the link below and entering your email address. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time.

    Subscribe to My Personal Finance Journey via Email

    *Payday loan picture courtest of http://mybiggestcomplaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/paydayloans.jpg

    Return on Investment of Your College Education – Top 15 Schools and How to Calculate It Yourself!



    Recently, I was reading the Monday, August 9th edition of the Investor’s Business Daily newspaper, and came across a very interesting article about the US colleges with the top 25 return on investment (ROI).

    A quick listing of the top 15 schools is shown below:

    1. Georgia Tech
    2. Brigham Young
    3. University of Virginia. Go UVA!
    4. William and Mary
    5. Colorado School of Mines
    6. Virginia Tech
    7. University of Michigan
    8. UC Los Angeles
    9. UC Berkeley
    10. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
    11. University of Florida
    12. Cal Tech State University (not California Institute of Technology)
    13. Texas A&M
    14. James Madison University! Go Dukes!
    15. University of Delaware. There are some smart ones in Delaware!

    A couple of key points stick out to me on this list, as described below:

    • The State of Virginia has 4 of the top 15 highest return schools! Go Virginia. 

      • I’m partial because I live in this state. 🙂
    • The 1st Northeastern United States school is not until #15 on the list, University of Delaware. The first California school is not until #8 on the list.

      • The ROI is not looking too good for the two areas in the US with the highest cost of living.
    • 8 of the top 15 schools are in the South.

    So, without a doubt, this is very interesting information. All of the source data from this article comes from PayScale.com. If you have children that are debating among colleges about which to attend, this site has useful information about potential salaries and return on investment.

    But, as I was reading through this article, I was curious about how I could expand the advice in this article so that everyone could calculate what their annual return on investment has been in the years that they have worked since attending college.

    To calculate your ROI, you need the following two pieces of information:

    • Return = average annual income that you have received since you ended college
    • Investment = total cost to attend college

      • PayScale.com calculates this by summing tuition, room, board, and fees.
    Once you have these two numbers calculate (Return / Investment) x 100 to get your ROI percentage. 
    Yes – I believe that makes sense.



    How about you all? Do you all currently tabulate your ROI for your college education? How did your school come out in the above rankings?


    Let us know by commenting below!

    Did you like this article? You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at My Personal Finance Journey in your email inbox each evening by clicking the link below and entering your email address. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time.

    Subscribe to My Personal Finance Journey via Email

    Financial Action Steps To Take When Leaving An Employer



    So, you’re getting ready to move to the next step in you life by moving on from your current employer.

    Before walking out the front gate, there are many things to do and keep track of – you must turn in all of your security badges, papers/records, equipment, and computer. In addition, you must make sure that all of your projects are in a state that are ready to be handed off to the person that will complete them.

    Yet another very important aspect that often gets taken too lightly (in my opinion) when leaving an employer is making sure all of your finances are taken care of.

    In order to give this topic its due respect, I wanted to share some of the action steps I have taken financially over the past few weeks in order to ensure a smooth transition from leaving my current employer and going to graduate school this fall.

    After thinking about what I would need to do for several minutes, I decided that the best places to start are…

    • 1) My current paystub
      • To create action plans for each of the current income deductions on my paycheck.
    • 2) Notify employer’s benefits center of your new address (if you are moving)
      • This is pretty self explanatory: you want your benefits provider to have your current address on file in the event that they need to contact you or send reimbursements.
    • 3) The My Personal Finance Journey Account Hierarchy 
      • To ensure that all of my needs are covered, according to the proper priority order.

    While #2 above is self explanatory, let’s take a look at #1 and 3 in a little more detail:

    1) Analysis of Current Paystub

    According to my latest paystub, the following items were deductions made either before or after tax. Below each item, I have listed the considerations I went through to decide what (if any) action steps are needed upon leaving my employer.

    • Federal and state withholding taxes
      • Someone once told me that, “There are only two things certain in life – death and taxes.” 
      • Accordingly, no action is needed, as I am sure that Uncle Sam will find me and charge me taxes on my income in graduate school.
    • Health insurance premium (PPO) – see previous post about deciding between the different types of employer sponsored health insurance plans for more information.
      • Health insurance is an ABSOLUTE MUST for everyone. 
      • I am lucky in the fact that my graduate assistantship is going to be paying for my health insurance coverage through the University-sponsored plan.
      • However, the University health insurance coverage doesn’t start until August 15, and as such, I need to make sure I am covered during the interim period of unemployment.
        • To remedy this, I had to contact my employer’s benefits department and request COBRA insurance, which is a type of insurance law that allows for health benefits to be extended to individuals for a short period of time after leaving an employer.
        • Even though this type of insurance will require that I pay 100% of the premium (much more than what I paid with my past employer), it will still be better than being caught without healthcare coverage.
    • Vision insurance
      • Vision insurance is much less obligatory than general health insurance coverage because it typically only covers one annual optometrist visit and a pair of glasses or contacts. 
      • The general rule of thumb is that you should not seek out vision insurance unless it is offered very cheaply through your employer.
      • Because of this, I do not need to take any action on obtaining vision insurance.
    • Dental insurance
      • Dental insurance falls in the same general category as vision insurance in that it is not totally obligatory because it generally covers a limited set of operations and routine maintenance.
      • Because of this, I do not need to take any action on obtaining dental insurance, unless it is offered at a good price through the University plan.
    • 401k retirement contribution (monthly)
      • My, my, my – how I will miss my past employer’s 401k plan. It even had a matching program!!! Twas’ sweet!
      • The University that I will be attending for graduate school does not offer a 401k plan that I am aware of. 
        • Therefore, I will most likely have to settle for just contributing to my Roth IRA. In all honesty, this should be sufficient since I will be making approximately 67% less income as a graduate student than in my past job.
      • However, I do need to take some action regarding the 401k that I currently have with my previous employer. What I need to do is roll-over the 401k funds to a Rollover IRA account that I will create with Vanguard.
      • I am inclined to do this because Vanguard IRA mutual funds are far superior to 401k mutual funds, stemming from the lower expense ratios/fees and a greater selection of index funds.

    • Flexible HealthCare Spending Account (FSA)
      • A Flexible Spending Account, or FSA, is another one of those “nice-to-have’s” that some employers offer. If you’re not familiar with what this type of account is, click the following link – My Personal Finance Journey – Flexible Spending Accounts and Should I Sign Up For One?
      • Because of this, I don’t need to actively seek out obtaining one, unless it is provided by the University health insurance plan that I will under.
      • However, I do need to take some action with my existing FSA account to make sure that I have spent all of the money in the account. If I do not spend the money I have deposited thus far this year, it will be lost at year end. This is undesirable, obviously.
      • To take care of this, I simply log in to my FSA account online, view the balance, and mark myself a reminder on my Outlook Calendar to spend some of the money each month on a qualified expense.

      So, simply by printing out your last paystub and reviewing it line by line, you can create an action plan for the majority of financial matters that require your attention stemming from leaving an employer. However, just to make sure all of our bases are covered, let’s take a quick peek at the Account Hierarchy to ensure our needs are met.

      3) My Personal Finance Journey Account Hierarchy

      • Priority 1 – Health insurance – Check
        • This will be covered by my University assistantship.
      • Priority 2 – Emergency fund – Check – not directly affected by leaving my employer.
        • However, since I will have much less income, I will need to monitor the level of my emergency fund to ensure that I keep 6-9 months worth of expenses on hand.
      • Priority 3 – Get rid of credit card debt – Check
        • I have no credit card debt.
      • Priority 4 – Pay monthly mortgage payment – Check – not directly affected by leaving my employer.
        • This is something that I will make sure to do going forward.
      • Priority 5 – 10 – Investing in a 401k and IRA accounts. – These topics were covered above.
        • However, one thing I will have to make sure that I do is to not contribute greater than the combined $5000 limit for both my Roth IRA and Rollover IRA (now that I’ll have both). 

      Key Takeaways and Summarized Action Plan


      So, I have gone through a lot of my thought process in this post. However, all of the actions I need to take can be summarized in to 6 simple steps below:

      1) Sign up for the University health insurance plan.
      2) Obtain temporary COBRA insurance from my previous employer.
      3) See if University health plan offers dental or vision insurance.
      4) Roll-over 401k to a Rollover IRA with Vanguard.
      5) Exhaust Flexible Spending Account funds by December 31, 2010.
      6) Monitor level of my emergency fund to ensure 6-9 months of expenses are included.

      Did I miss any financial action steps that I need to look at with leaving my employer? How about you all? Have you had any interesting experiences with this process?


      If so, please share by commenting below!

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      Hamster Revolution Email and Electronic File Management System

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      Back in May of this year, I wrote about my new favorite financial organization/filing system that I implemented after reading David Bach’s book, Smart Couples Finish Rich (see the following link for details – My Personal Finance Journey Financial Organization System).
      Since implementing this file folder system, my ability to store and locate hard copies of my financial papers has improved dramatically.
      Almost equally as effective for me as this hard copy filing system has been an email and electronic filing and management system, created by using advice received in two books – Getting Things Done by David Allen and The Hamster Revolution by Mike Song, et al. Since this system has improved my life and time management ability significantly, I wanted to share it with you all as well.
      Today, we’ll start with the portion of the system that I obtained from reading The Hamster Revolution. 

      Overall, the book (which I highly recommend you reading – just click on the link above to buy a cheap used copy from Amazon.com for $0.02!!!) is organized in to 5 sections, as described below.
      • How to reduce email volume
      • How to improve email quality
      • Organizing information (email, hard drive, shared drives, teamsites, anywhere!)
      • How to coach others on email
      • Answers to further questions

      To read the complete summary of the book, click on the Google Docs / Word document link below.

      While all of the book’s sections offer great advice, I wanted to focus mainly on the “Organizing information” section, as this is what has contributed the most value to my life.

      The section starts off by describing some of the challenges of organizing and finding information effectively. Several of the main challenges are listed below.

      • Too many overlapping categories and/or categorization methods exist.
      • There are too many primary folders in your system.
      • Different shared drives, personal drives, and team sites employ mismatched folder systems, making it impossible to know where to store or find the information when you need it.
      To combat this insanity, Mike Song proposes a bulletproof system that I have implemented (and would recommend that you try out). 
      It’s called the COTAP System.
      What is the COTAP System exactly?

      The COTAP System is an email and data/information management system that Mike invented after studying many different types of business and what sorts of information flows within these organizations.

      What he found was that in all industries, all email and/or information fits in to one of 5 categories – Clients, Output, Teams, Admin, and Personal. I am a big believer in this philosophy. I have found that both at home and at work, all of my information really does fall in to one of these 5 categories.

      Furthermore, I have found this system to be effective not only for my emails but also for organizing my electronic files on  my hard drive.

      How do I implement the COTAP System?

      To create the COTAP folder system on your computer, simply follow the guidelines below, creating folders for each main category and subcategory.

      • Clients – Your team’s internal or external clients
        • Create a subfolder for each one of your clients
      • Output – Your team’s products and services
        • Create a folder for each product, project, or service you are involved in.
        • Also create “general output” folder
      • Teams – Your team
        • Create a folder for each team of which you are a member.
        • Examples would include budget teams, new pharmaceutical drug team, etc.
      • Admin – Your non-core-job responsibilities
        • Create a folder for each non-core-job responsibility
        • Examples would include training, benefits, etc.
      • Personal – Personal information that is non-job related.
        • Examples would include Toastmaster’s public speaking club, Jonny’s karate schedule, cycling team, etc.
      • After creating all of your respective folders, place desktop shortcuts to all of your main COTAP folders so that you can access them quickly.
      Note: If there is an overlap and you don’t know where something should go, default to the order of COTAP listed above.

      Show below is a screen shot/example of the COTAP system set up on my Outlook email account. Proof that you can do it too!

      My COTAP Folders

      How about you all? What email/information organization system do you use? Are you satisfied with the results?
      Have you implemented the Hamster Revolution COTAP organization system?
      Share your experiences by commenting below! 
      Did you like this article? You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at My Personal Finance Journey in your email inbox each evening by clicking the link below and entering your email address. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time.
      Related articles about email and information organization at several of my favorite personal finance blogs:
      The Simple Dollar – Getting Things Done By David Allen – Mastering Workflows
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