My Money Blog

Giving In To The Credit Cards

Posted on November 23, 2005 // 8 Comments

(Typing quietly while the parents are still asleep, shh...) I've decided to take advantage of two recent credit card offers: 1) The Citi Professional Card for it's 3% back on restaurants, $100 bonus, and save-able 0% balance transfer, and 2) … [Read the rest]

Buying T-Bills: Can’t Back Out After Rate Announcement

Posted on November 22, 2005 // 10 Comments

One bad thing about purchasing Treasury Bills at TreasuryDirect is that you don't know the exact return of the T-Bill before you buy it. An interesting idea around this was presented by commenter Dan when I first posted about buying T-Bills: You … [Read the rest]

XBOX 360 Flipping: Failure

Posted on November 22, 2005 // 14 Comments

I failed in my Xbox 360 flipping mission. Apparently people are just crazy over this Xbox thing. I went at 6:45am (store opened at 7), and the people who camped out had already gotten the vouchers and wanted to sell me one for $1,000. Madness. … [Read the rest]

Carnival Time!

Posted on November 21, 2005 // Leave a Comment

This week's Carnival of Debt Reduction #10 is up at Boston Gal's Open Wallet, and the Carnival of Personal Finance #23 is up at Frugal For Life! … [Read the rest]

If You’re Gonna Buy Online, Get Cash Back

Posted on November 20, 2005 // 9 Comments

Oh, the smell of wallets opening is in the air. My parents have already directed me to find the most direct route to the nearest outlet malls. I'm so sad that I will be forced into the writhing frantic mass that is Black Friday shoppers. I like … [Read the rest]

Xbox 360 Flipping

Posted on November 19, 2005 // 11 Comments

I don't even play video games, but I am going to try and buy an Xbox 360 early on my way to the airport before my parents' flight lands since it coincides with the official release date. I used to flip gadgets in college, so why not start doing it … [Read the rest]

How Treasury Bill Auctions Work

Posted on November 19, 2005 // 4 Comments

Reader Dan pointed out an interesting (well, kind of) research article [pdf] that, amongst other things, explains how Treasury auctions work. As stated on the Treasury Direct site, you can buy T-Bills through either a competitive or non-competitive … [Read the rest]

Treasury Bills Adjust For Holidays

Posted on November 18, 2005 // 3 Comments

Treasury Bills are usually issued on the same day each week, making it easy to re-invest T-Bills at maturity. Someone brought up a good point - what if that day is a holiday? Reader Dan pointed out that the Treasury already thought of that, and … [Read the rest]

30 Days to Becoming a Better Investor

Posted on November 18, 2005 // 1 Comment

When I started out this blog, I thought I'd be talking a lot about how to value stocks, technical analysis, and so forth. It turns out so far I've just put all my retirement money on autopilot in low-cost Vanguard index funds. But once I buy my … [Read the rest]

Holiday Gifts – Shop With Your Brain, Not Your Wallet

Posted on November 17, 2005 // 9 Comments

Black Friday is only a week from today, so it's just about time spend spend spend on gifts. And while some frugal sites may suggest things like making things like a gift basket of cookies or handmade candles, my friends already think I'm cheap … [Read the rest]

$100 Gift Cards for Citi Professional Card and AT&T Universal Card

Posted on November 16, 2005 // 40 Comments

I just came across some tasty cards that are currently offering $100 gift cards for opening! Citi Professional MasterCard - 10,000 Thank You Points after your first $250 in purchases, which is the same as a $100 gift card at various places like … [Read the rest]

Automatically Reinvesting Treasury Bills: Easy

Posted on November 16, 2005 // 20 Comments

It turns out automatically reinvesting Treasury Bills upon maturity is pretty straightforward, according to this TreasuryDirect link. I must say, there is a lot of information on all those government sites, but they sure make it hard to find … [Read the rest]