When you get a new credit card, you usually also receive a small brochure describing the various benefits your new card offers. Most of the benefits are common: rental car coverage, protection against loss or damage of a new purchase within the first X days, extended warranty, travel accident insurance, etc. Don’t just throw away […]
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How To Get Money Off Rebate Debit Cards
I bought tires from a tire shop when it offered a $100 mail-in rebate for a set of 4 tires of certain brands. The mail-in rebate came in the form of a prepaid debit card instead of just a plain old check. Companies do that because their rebate vendors convince them prepaid debit cards work […]
Higher Yield On Brokered CD vs Early Withdrawal Option
Bond interest rates came up by about 1% after the Fed started talking about tapering Quantitative Easing. We are starting to see some higher rates in brokered CDs. This makes sense because brokered CDs compete directly with bonds. Brokered CDs don’t have the early withdrawal option. If you want out, you have to sell them […]
Is Home Mortgage Simple Interest Or Compound Interest?
I had a good chuckle while reading this epic discussion thread on the Bogleheads Investment Forum: Does a home mortgage use Simple or Compound Interest? It sounds a like factual question, as in "Is Miami located to the north or south of Boston?" The answer shouldn’t be ambiguous or subject to opinion or interpretation. You […]
Happy Trails With Income Poor
This is the third and final installment on my Asset Rich Income Poor strategy. The road to asset rich sounds simple at a high level but it’s not that easy at the details level, because every decision you make has tradeoffs. The tradeoffs affect the final outcome in ways you can’t know for sure. I […]
The Road to Asset Rich
The second part of the Asset Rich Income Poor strategy is relatively easy when you get overpaid, uh, increase the value, for what you do. I wrote about the basics in 3 Secrets to a Fat 401k. To achieve Asset Rich, we need to work on these 3 factors: the amount you invest; the rate […]
Using a Wire Transfer for Real Estate Settlement
One logistical challenge in refinancing a mortgage is getting a certified check for the amount you have to bring to the table at the time you sign the closing papers. Even if you are doing a no-cost refinance, you still have to pay pre-paid interest for the partial month and escrow deposit. If you are […]
Get Overpaid For What You Do
I mentioned my Asset Rich Income Poor strategy in passing in a Friday roundup a few weeks ago. I’ve been formulating it for some time now. I gave an outline to reader Harry in the comments. Now it’s time to put it in the open. Step one in the strategy is: get overpaid for what […]
Buy Bond ETFs At Large Discounts To Net Asset Value (NAV)
For reasons I don’t completely understand, bond ETFs, especially ones investing in illiquid bonds such as munis, trade at a premium to the net asset value (NAV) most of the time. That means you will pay more to buy the ETF than the value of the illiquid bonds held by the ETF. Look at these […]
Don’t Be Afraid To Switch
My home Internet service deal expired. The rate jumped to $46 a month just for Internet. Like in most places in the country, two companies control the market: the monopoly phone company and the monopoly cable company. I’m not fond of either. Everybody knows you are supposed to call them, pretend to cancel, and get […]