OpenCourseWare: Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning

Posted on June 21, 2007 // 28 Comments

While reading this month’s issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, I found that UC Irvine offers a free online course on the Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning:

This course was produced by a generous grant from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards and by the Distance Learning Center at the University of California, Irvine under the OpenCourseWare Initiative. The purpose is to make widely available to the general public a course designed to provide a comprehensive but easily understood overview of personal financial planning.

This course is not intended to replace the professional financial planner, but to help to make the general public better consumers of financial planning advice. It tries to help those who cannot afford extensive planning assistance to better understand how to define and reach their financial goals and provides basic understanding so they can make informed decisions. The course can also be seen as a reference for individual topics that are part of personal financial planning.

While it seems to be a pretty good basic resource for novice investors, I was actually disappointed as I was hoping to see some of the actual courses one would have to take to become a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). Is it heavy on the math? Mostly memorization? I’ve toyed with the idea of becoming a financial planner before, but it always seems like it would be hard to start out anywhere else besides a commission-based sales job.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Investing, Retirement //

Free 25,000 Rewards Points ($250 in Gift Cards or a Free Plane Ticket) For American Express Business Gold Card

Posted on June 19, 2007 // 43 Comments

Update: The below promotion is now expired. The New Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN now offers 3X points on airfare, 2X points on advertising, gas, and shipping and 1X point on everything else. The annual fee for this card is $175 but it is waived for all new cardholders. You can also get unlimited additional gold cards for an extra annual fee of $50 but this fee is waived for the first year as well.

If you’ve got a business, even if it’s just a small home-based side business, here’s a juicy offer for the New Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN:

 

The New Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express Screenshot
New cardmembers get 25,000 Membership Rewards points after the first purchase. These can be converted to 25,000 frequent flier miles at certain airlines, which can be converted to a roundtrip ticket. According to the terms above, you have to pay $10 to convert that over. Alternatively, you can convert to about $250 worth of gift cards at stores like Home Depot, Crate and Barrel, Banana Republic, Barnes and Noble, and so on. The annual fee is also waived for the first year, after that it is $125.Here’s the fine print:

? Apply for the Business Gold Rewards Card and make a purchase by 12/31/07. Upon the Basic Cardmember’s first purchase, a one time bonus of 25,000 points can be earned toward the Basic Business Gold Rewards Cardmember’s Membership Rewards? account and may appear as separate credits of 5,000 and 20,000 bonus points. The maximum 25,000 bonus points are available to first?time Basic Business Gold Rewards Cardmembers only; they are not available if you transfer an existing account. Welcome bonus points will be credited to your Membership Rewards account 6 to 8 weeks after your first purchase appears on your monthly billing statement. The bonus 25,000 Membership Rewards points may be redeemed for one domestic round?trip airline ticket. Cardmembers transferring points to participating domestic airlines will be charged a fee of $.0004 per point, up to $50. This charge is to offset the excise taxes American Express currently pays to the government on such transactions. Bonus ID: 2329.

Also, see here for more details and a how-to about applying for business cards as an individual.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Zecco Now Has No Minimum Balance: How To Buy The World For Just $319

Posted on June 7, 2007 // 25 Comments

It appears that Zecco brokerage has now removed their minimum opening requirements, on top of their 40 free trades a month. I’m guessing this means you can start trading with any amount of money, which is nice because you can try them out with minimal commitment. You still need $2,000 to open a margin account, though. See my Zecco review for more information, and how to maximize the interest on your idle cash.

This got me to thinking – someone could now build the world’s tiniest diversified stock portfolio which tracks the entire world by buying:

  1. Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU) at ~$56 per share. This ETF essentially tracks the entire world’s publicly traded companies, minus that of the US, and holds over 1,500 representative stocks from 47 countries.
  2. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) at ~$151 per share. This ETF tracks the total US market via the Wilshire 5000 index and includes over 3,600 stocks.

To got the respective ratios approximately correct, you’d have to buy 3 shares of VEU and 1 share of VTI, for a total of only $319. This gives you 53% International/47% US, which is very close to how the market capitalization of the world is currently split up, which if I recall correctly is about 55%/45%.

I find it very cool that you can now track the world via over 5,000 stocks for about $300. With the free trades, the total cost to maintain this $319 portfolio would be just the slim expense ratios, which add up to… 53 cents a year!

…or you could just trade a bunch of stocks and do your best Warren Buffett imitation like everyone else is thinking. 😀

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Investing //

GrandCentral: Free Local Number, Rings Any Phone, Lots Of Features

Posted on June 2, 2007 // 39 Comments

Tired of juggling multiple phone numbers? Or just need an extra one? You should check out GrandCentral Beta, which offers all kinds of new tricks with phone calls by utilizing VoIP and the internet. First and foremost, they offer you a free local phone number from 47 states.

One Number For Everything
I think the main idea behind the name is that this free phone number will become your only phone number. This way, if you move or change jobs you can keep the same number forever, or at least for as long as you like. To entice you to do so, they add in some cool features. For example, when a person calls your GrandCentral number, you can:

  1. Have them call different phone numbers in order, for example home, then work, then cell phone. So people only need to know one number to reach you anywhere.
  2. Immediately redirect them by Caller ID to a specific phone number. Maybe certain friends just go straight to cell phone?
  3. If they are a known telemarketer, you can set the spam filter to not ring your phone at all.

An Extra Number For Personal or Business
The way I’ve been using the free number is as my new business phone number. This way, you have a separate business number to give out to customers, but it can ring your regular cell phone. You can know that it is a business call by setting the caller ID to display your “Biz” GrandCentral number, and answer professionally.

They even have a cool WebCall button where a customer can click on your webpage and call directly you for free.

Avoid Long Distance Charges
Added: I haven’t worried about long distance for a while now, but you could also use it to avoid long distance charges for your friends (or yourself), by getting a number in one area code and forwarding it as needed to another area code. Thanks to commenter Ross below for the tip.

Get More Free Minutes With T-Mobile MyFaves or AllTel Circle
Both T-Mobile and AllTel have plans where you get unlimited calls to and from a few select numbers. So here, you would set your “Personal” GrandCentral number as one of your favorites. Then, just tell everyone to call the GrandCentral number instead, which will redirect to your cell phone, giving you unlimited minutes! It would seem that you would lose the ability to see who’s calling, however.

They also offer store your voicemail all in one place with unlimited storage, and have a ton of other features that I’ve never used yet. You can record phone calls, switch seamlessly between your home phone and cell phone to save more minutes, screen calls by name, and more.

Will This Stay Free?
It seems like unlimited inbound calling will remain free, but I’m sure they will start charging for some of their premium features, like calling outbound. From their FAQ:

Will GrandCentral always be free?

Yes, we’re excited to say that we will always offer a free version of GrandCentral, even after beta. Our free version will include unlimited inbound minutes, unlimited voicemail (up to 30 days old), and access to all of our core features.

During beta, we’re giving everyone unlimited access to our premium features. In exchange, all we ask is that you send us your feedback (good or bad) to beta@grandcentral.com. We’ll read every comment.

Got a better idea of how to take advantage of this service? Please share in the comments.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Entrepreneurial //

Another Free $50 Credit From Sprint SERO

Posted on May 24, 2007 // 52 Comments

Wow, this deal keeps getting better. If you recently got in on the Sprint SERO plan (review), it looks like you can get another $50 discount. Thanks goes out to Jason for the tip. Just e-mail Sprint online and type something like this:

Dear Sprint,

I recently activated a Sprint account and just received a $50 coupon code, “SAVE50.” Could you please apply this to my account? Thank you very much for your assistance.

The reply:

Thank you for contacting Sprint. I will be happy to assist you regarding the credit. I understand that you received a $50.00 coupon. Therefore, I have applied this to the account. This service credit will reflect on your next invoice.

Sweet! To recap:

  • 500 Anytime Minutes + 7pm Nights/Weekends + Unlimited Web for $30/month
  • $100 Motorola Q Phone (which rocks by the way) – now $80
  • Possible 10% corporate discount (still waiting)
  • Free unlimited text messages
  • $25 prepaid credit card for getting a referral
  • $50 with this coupon.
Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Free Text Messages with Sprint SERO Plan

Posted on May 21, 2007 // 67 Comments

I previously mentioned a cheap plan called Sprint SERO, and I know some of y’all have gotten on it. Here are some quick updates:

Bad News – It appears that you can’t order new lines online anymore, but must do it via telephone. I’m not sure what that means just yet, perhaps someone else can report, but it probably isn’t good.

Good News – If you did get in on the deal already, you can get free unlimited text messages. Basically the new SERO plan offers unlimited minutes until 6/30/07. So just call in or ask online and tell them you just joined, but saw that they offer free texts now, and would like to see if you could also get that feature. They should add it without any problems. I just did it, although the hold time was atrocious (I love speakerphones!).

You can confirm by logging into your account under Current Usage:

altext
Filed Under: Deals & Offers //

Are 0% APR Balance Transfer Offers Coming To An End?

Posted on May 14, 2007 // 23 Comments

If you are making money off of balance transfers or have been considering it, the following observations might be of interest to you. Otherwise, it probably won’t 😉

The Bad News
A few months ago, Citibank started saying “Balance transfer fees apply with this offer” on certain applications, even though the Terms and Conditions clearly stated that there was still no fee for initial balance transfers. Then, a few weeks afterwards, the longstanding Citi Platinum Select card, which used to offer a sweet deal of 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for years, started charging a fee.

More recently, on May 1st, Discover stopped offering no-fee balance transfers on all their cards, instead implementing 3% fees with $50 to $75 caps. The Miles Card by Discover still offers 12,000 bonus miles, which is worth $100 in travel credit to offset the fee.

The Good News
Still, there are plenty of Citibank cards that remain which offer 12 months of 0% APR on balance transfers with no initial balance transfer fees: (none anymore)

For alternatives, please see my list of updated
best 0% APR balance transfer offers.

Should I Save Some For Later? (SFL)
Also, if you are concerned about having less 0% APR offers in the future, you can actually “tuck away” one or two of them for later. In the Terms and Conditions for the cards marked “SFL” above, you will see this:

Balance transfer APR: As long as first balance transfer is completed within 12 months from date of account opening, 0.00% for 12 months from date of first balance transfer. After that, XX.XX% variable.

So, you can actually wait 12 months from the date of account opening to start the balance transfer, and then still enjoy 12 months at 0% APR. Some of the cards also offer rewards programs (marked “Rewards” above), which can give you cashback on everything from utilities to restaurants, whatever fits your spending the best.

Got questions? Please read my details series of step-by-step posts on how I and others do this first. Lots of good stuff there!

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Deals & Offers //

Emigrant Direct Signup Bonus Update – March Payouts

Posted on May 10, 2007 // 6 Comments

Payout instructions for my Emigrant Direct Referral Bonus went out over the last two weeks for those that either sent me their Form #2’s or Claim Form A’s in March. Please let me know if there are any questions.

Emigrant Direct offers an online savings account paying 5.05% APY with no minimum balance requirements, and I have partnered with them to offer a sign-up bonus worth up to $20 if you choose to open an account with them through my specific link. Combine this with the $25 opening bonus from Capital One 360 and $20 opening bonus from VirtualBank for some quick bucks. Some have minimum opening amounts, but none have ongoing minimum balance requirements or monthly fees, so you can try each one out and just stay with the ones you like.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //

Zecco Free Trades Broker Review, Part 2: Corrections, Funds Transfers, and Trading Experiences

Posted on May 9, 2007 // 132 Comments

This is the second part of my review of the Zecco brokerage account. If you haven’t already, please read the first part of this review, where I went over the main draws of Zecco and the account opening process. Here, I will finish up my review of the opening process and also talk about my trading experiences.

Funds Transfer Speed and Experience
I initiated an online funds transfer from the Zecco website early on Tuesday. The funds were taken out of my savings account on Wednesday. The funds appeared in my Zecco account on Thursday and was available for trading. You probably still want to avoid straddling a weekend, but I’ve made two transfers and both took one business day. I’m glad the transfers are prompt.

One thing about the transfer system is that it can be tricky to find your pending transfer request after you submit it. You actually have to search by processing date, which is tedious.

Trading Interface
I am not an active stock trader, so I am not an expert at determining the quality of their real time quotes, options setup, or other such things. I thought the trading interface was fine, and similar to the many other brokers I have used. I just want to buy and sell stocks every so often, not day-trade. A screenshot of the order entry form is on the right.

Trading Experience
What I have done so far is make two test trades of the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, symbol VTI.

#1: On Day 1, VTI’s last trade was at 149.23, with a bid of 149.16 and ask price of 149.22. I placed a limit order at 3:39pm to buy just one single share at $149.18. The order was filled six minutes later at $149.16 , 2 cents below my limit amount. (As an aside, a bid/ask spread of 5 cents on a $150 ETF seems very reasonable. More on this later.)

#2: After the market closed on Day 1, I went ahead and placed a sell order on my single share of VTI at my buy price of $149.16. My goal was simply to get my money back. My order was filled right at market open (9:30am) for $149.81. Here is a screenshot from my order history.

I was not charged any commission for either trade, as promised. On the sell order, I was charged a penny for a Section 31 fee. This is a small fee charged by the SEC in order to help fund their overseeing activities, which brokers pass on to us. It’s assessed only when you sell a stock.

What are Section 31 fees and how are they calculated?
The normal calculation for Section 31 fees is $30.70 per $1,000,000 in principle amount on sales. A principle amount of $140 would be subject to a Section 31 fee of $.01.

So I feel my trades were filled successfully and also promptly as the market allowed. There were no indications of shady behavior. For example, with my limit order of $149.16, they could have just given me $149.16 instead of the market price that was $0.65 higher. I would be comfortable using market orders if my goal was to dollar-cost-average into ETFs. Overall, it was pretty cool to be able to trade small amounts and not have to worry about commissions.

Few More Details
» Cost Basis Accounting – They use the FIFO (first-in first-out) method by default on 1099s, and don’t support HIFO (highest-in first-out) on their end. If you want to use HIFO, you’ll have to calculate it manually.

» You get a paper confirmation snail-mailed to you every time you make a trade, which can’t be turned off at this time. This could be a plus or a minus depending on the person.

» Checkwriting and an ATM card is available at an additional cost of $30 annually. I’m not interested, but it’s an option.

» Their reorganization fee of $15 is cheaper than most other brokers I’ve used. Therefore, I also plan to use this account for any future going-private transactions I participate in.

Summary
Overall, Zecco.com fulfills its promise of providing free trades and provides the basic features expected of a legitimate discount broker. My idle cash is even getting 4.38% APY in a money market sweep, which together with the free trades makes the overall cost of this account much less than other discount brokers like Scottrade and Ameritrade (who charge for trades and offer low interest). However, getting the account opened and ready for trading is more difficult than it should be. In other words, the customer service is slower than those same other discount brokers.

The question is simply, is it worth it to you to swap slower customer service for free stock trades? For me, I am definitely keeping this account open, and it is now my primary taxable brokerage account. I have dealt with Penson Financial Services in the past, and I feel they are adequate at their back-end duties. I am not a demanding trader and my balances are not large, so the free trades are simply too enticing. With my personality, paying $5+ for a trade when there is a free option available would nag at me.

Navigation
Zecco Review, Part 1
Zecco Review, Part 2

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Investing //

Sprint SERO Plan Review: Affordable Cell Phone Plan, Free Data, Currently Open To All

Posted on April 29, 2007 // 253 Comments

If you are currently out of or nearing the end of your cell phone contract, be sure to consider the Sprint Employee Referral Offer, or SERO, plan. Although it has been heavily discussed for a while on many cellular enthusiast forums, actually getting on the plan used to require a referral from a Sprint Employee (duh), some smooth-talking over the phone, or the “borrowing” of a random employee e-mail from the internet. However, right now they have opened it up to the public, and I have gone ahead and jumped on it myself as it probably won’t last forever. Here are my experiences:

How to order
» Visit the Sprint SERO site.
» Type in either “savings@sprint.com” or “savings@sprintemi.com” in the box for Sprint Employee E-mail Address, along with your zip code.
» You should be greeted with the default offer shown to the right. However, you can choose from a variety of phones and plans to suit your needs and do all the ordering online. (If you don’t, the e-mails may have expired.)
» When you order, please note that you will be subjected to a hard credit pull just like with other carriers.

The plans all include such perks as free long distance, unlimited Sprint mobile-to-mobile, Unlimited Weekends and Nights starting at 7pm, and unlimited Power Vision (web, IM, e-mail). If you talk enough to make a prepaid plan too expensive, 500 anytime minutes for $30 plus taxes seems like a very good price. Two-year contract required, no activation fee.

Phones
The prices on phones are sometimes a good deal, but not always cheaper than other places. Although I have seen them offer free phones, I think they start at $20 now. You can compare with other sites, taking into the account the monthly savings on this plan.

I splurged and bought the Motorola Q for $100 because, well, I’m a geek and wanted to take advantage of the free data! Unlimited data alone costs $20-$50 a month on other carriers. It’s not quite a Treo and there is no touchscreen, but I can check my e-mail and also internet in a pinch. It’s quite thin, and overall I’m very happy with my new toy. 😀

Service
Although they do send it out via 2-Day FedEx, it took me about a week before they actually shipped my phone. However, there is a status website that keeps you relatively well-informed. It should be noted that InPhonic (WireFly.com) is the outsourced provider that you’ll actually be dealing with during the initial purchase, not Sprint. They aren’t the best from what I’ve read, so if you are going to port your existing number, it may be a good idea to do it yourself through Spring customer service once you’ve gotten the phone. It took me only minutes and I just needed my old account number. In the meantime, they’ll just assign you another number.

As for Sprint’s service, they’ve been very good so far. My hold times have been pretty short, the CSRs have been nice. Coverage will vary for everyone, but mine has been adequate. There is also a 30-day guarantee just in case it isn’t.

Other notes
» You can still add any corporate or student discounts to your plan, bringing the overall price down even lower. If you are a student, call 1-866-853-4931, hit 1, and ask about your specific university. I ended up with 10% off.
» You can’t add a cheap 2nd line on these plans. This is important to note for non-single folks, because our old Cingular family line plan was actually very comparable to the SERO price. We used to share 800 minutes for $68 total a month after discounts. Now we have 500 minutes each for about $64 total per month. ($30 x 2 – 10% discount + $5 taxes per line.) The only real difference in service is the free data.
» If you experience a dropped call, you can dial *2 on your phone, say “dropped call”, and they will credit 50 cents on your account.

» After you get the phone, you can also call in for a free $25 debit card if you give them your new phone number and another referring person’s Nextel/Sprint PCS number. The other person will get $25 too. I referred my wife and we both got $25. If would like a number to use for a referral, you can contact me with your new cell phone number.

For more information, you can join the (long and often tedious) ongoing discussions at SprintUsers, Slickdeals, Fatwallet, or Howard Forums. If you are currently in a Sprint contract, you may want to read this post for some tips.

Filed Under: Deals & Offers, Frugal Living //

Redeeming Citibank ThankYou Points For Free Flights: A Great Option

Posted on April 23, 2007 // 32 Comments

I just redeemed a bunch of ThankYou points and I think I got some great rewards for doing things I would have done anyways. Consider this:

I have had the Citi Driver’s Edge MasterCard (one of my main rewards cards) since July, which gives you a 6% rebate back on supermarkets, drugstores, and gasoline for the first 12 months. These are everyday needs, not frivolous items. The Purchase rebates can either be redeemed by sending in auto care receipts, or converted directly to Citi ThankYou points by calling 1-800-308-4158. $1 in Rebates = 100 ThankYou Points.

In addition, you can also get Drive rebates for miles driven, at the rate of 1 mile = $0.01. You have to send in an enrollment form to start the counting, and then a mileage update form whenever you get an oil change or other service that logs the odometer. You can only redeem as many Drive rebates as you have Purchase rebates.

For us, we have averaged $400 per month in groceries and gas so far, racking about $220 in Purchase rebates on $3,670 of spending. We just send in a mileage update for 6,000 miles, adding another $60 in Drive Rebates, for a total of $280 or 28,000 ThankYou points. My original plan was just to convert ThankYou Points to Target gift cards (already getting me ~7% cash back), but then I discovered their Fixed Flight Travel option:

Eligible Citi? cardmembers can also take advantage of our fixed flights option for air travel by calling one of our ThankYou Network Travel Specialists. You can count on getting a ticket for the date you want to fly. For example, only 25,000 points are needed for flights anywhere in the continental U.S. and Alaska, any time of year. With no black-out dates. Simply book 14 days in advance and plan for a Saturday overnight stay.

Am I eligible for fixed flight options for airline tickets?
Currently, ThankYou Members with the following Sponsor accounts are eligible for fixed flight airline tickets at fixed ThankYou Point amounts: Citi PremierPass? Card, Citi PremierPass? Card – Elite Level, Citi? Diamond Preferred? Rewards Card, Citi Simplicity Rewards Card, Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network, CitiBusiness PremierPass Card, CitiBusiness? Card with ThankYou Network, AT&T Universal Rewards Card, Citi? Platinum Select? Card with ThankYou Network, Citigroup Chairman? Card and Citi? Driver’s Edge? Card. This Sponsor Account list is subject to change without notice. Fixed flight option Travel Rewards are only available when you call the ThankYou Service Center. Agents will work to offer you the best deal on available flights ? you are not required to select the fixed flight option.

I am eligible for fixed flight option Travel Rewards. What are the current prices and destinations?

Fixed Flight Option Travel Rewards
(Restricted, Round-Trip)
Coach Business Class
Continental US & Alaska 25,000 60,000
Canada 25,000 60,000
Mexico 35,000 60,000
Hawaii & Caribbean 40,000 75,000
Europe 60,000 165,000
Asia 60,000 165,000
Middle East & Africa 80,000 130,000
Australia & South Pacific 100,000 180,000
Central America 35,000 60,000
South America 60,000 160,000
Puerto Rico to Continental US 40,000  

This is actually a lot better than using regular frequent flyer miles, as basically if there is a flight available, they will let you have it for 25,000 ThankYou points (You pay any taxes and fees). You can book the flight for anyone – yourself, friends, or family.

After calling 1-877-773-3336 and talking to their travel agents, I found out that they won’t let you have any flight, but restrict you to the cheaper options for the dates you want to fly. I wanted a cross-country flight in July, which cost anywhere from $500-$1,000 online depending on the schedule and number of stops. They let me pick basically from the flights $600 and under. Still, this was a time period with no 25,000 mile award flights using normal frequent flier miles.

In the end, I got a flight that would have cost me $560 on Expedia for 25,000 ThankYou Points and $40 in taxes. I still get to earn frequent flier miles for the flight, too. So I saved $520 after spending $3,670 on groceries and gas we needed anyways. That’s a cashback return of 14.2%! (And I still have 3,000 points left.) On top of our recent Vegas winnings, I’m pretty happy with myself right now 8)

If you have ThankYou points and fly at all, using the Fixed Flight option can be a much better redemption rate than gift cards or even putting it towards student loan balances. Also, if you want a flight less than $250, you can book via their Variable Flight option; a $150 flight would cost only 15,000 points.

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Deals & Offers //

Emigrant Direct Signup Bonus Update – February Payouts

Posted on April 8, 2007 // 2 Comments

Payouts for my Emigrant Direct Referral Bonus went out over the last two weeks for those that either sent me their Form #2’s or Claim Form A’s in February. Please let me know if there are any questions.

Emigrant Direct offers an online savings account paying 5.05% APY with no minimum balance. They allow online transfers to and from up to 4 external checking accounts if you send them a voided check, but not other 3rd party transfers. It only takes $1 to open, and you can make another $10-20 just for signing up through me.

Filed Under: Banking, Deals & Offers //
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