Pragmatic Finance

Online savings accounts are a great way to save money with a good and guaranteed return while having excellent liquidity. As they have increased in popularity there are more and more companies jumping into the competition. The big question is which one is best? Although some people only really consider the interest rate paid, there are many other important features and considerations to look at. I have many of the popular ones and plan to review all of them. Before I do I think it’s a good idea to write down the important features to consider when choosing one. And of course my opinion on how important they are.

Interest Rates

The current interest rate is one of the most important factors in choosing an account because this determines how much money you will earn. However, it’s not always wise to simply choose the one that just raised their rates to the highest APY, especially when Read the rest of this entry »

Be sure to check out the second ever Festival of Under 30 Finances at College Student Financials. This week’s special question asked which was more important: your GPA or first “real” job?. There are a lot of good answers there, most of which believe your first professional job is more important. Check it out and if you’re under 30 and blogging about finance you might want to join the Under 30 Honor Roll.

The Carnival of Personal Finance has my post about using the MBNA 529 card to get 2% back on all your purchases.

Over a month ago I signed up for a TD Ameritrade $500 promotion that also gave 500 free trades for 45 days. I was able to use my 0% balance transfer money. I had a little trouble getting them to credit me the signup bonus and apex status. Eventually I was able to speak to a csr whom promised to call me back within a day after he spoke to the promotional and marketing department. He did and that day I had apex and my bonus. If anyone who signed up for it is having problems I suggest calling and perhaps recommending that they speak or that department or even asking for your call to be transferred there.

Now that the free trade period is over I have to decide what to do with the 10k that I still have in there. You must keep that much in the account to keep the bonus. So far it seems the best two options are to put it into a no transaction fee mutual fund and let it sit there for 9 months or more or purchase a 9 month cd with it. Last month the rate was around 5.3%. Alternative, I could purchase an etf such as SPY that tracks the S&P500. I don’t have enough knowledge or time to try to trade with the account. Right now I am earning about 4.31% apy in their TAP while I decide what to do next.

Overall I had some fun with the free trades. I actually ended up making around $150 from trading. Most of it came from purchasing a gold etf (GLD) when it went down to around 63 and then more when it went down to around 57. I then sold it when it approached 65. Other than that I did a few trades here and there, pretty much getting only a slight return. I kept most of my money in SHY, a short term bond etf that was very stable in price.

If anyone has any suggestions of what I should do with the funds for the next 9 months in the account or which of their mutual funds would be a good idea to invest in I’m all ears.

Often times I think I need to buy something but it is simply an impulse and not something that I really have to have. I have found one of the best ways to deal with these emotional purchases is simply to research over a long period of time and discuss the purchase with friends or family. In addition to getting feedback you also delay the purchase. If I put it off long enough I normally realize that I don’t need it or am able to convince myself to use the money for something more important. This is probably one of the best money saving tips. Or at least one that will help you to accumulate less useless crap.

One great example of this was last year. My car was having a lot of problems and I was considering buying a new one. The car had been having no problems for a long time and it definitely had some good years left of use before it would be prudent to buy another. But I really wanted a new one and had enough saved for a decent down payment from working during the summer. Luckily, I delayed and procrastinated in following through. First, I did lots of research into what cars I would be interested in. I also looked into prices and best ways of reducing the purchase price, etc. And sometime in between mentioned it to friends and family, all of whom didn’t think I needed a new one. By this time my car was back to working fine and I had realized it would be really foolish to spend that much money. I instead decided to save it and eventually used it to open a Roth IRA.

Another great example is earlier this year when I had a desire for a really nice plasma or LCD HDTV. I don’t watch that much TV and I don’t recall what got me interested in one but I had to have one. Well, again, I started doing research and looking online at different models and features to decide which one would be best. I also thought about how to buy one to future proof it as much as possible to avoid it being outdated or needing to upgrade too soon. When I mentioned the idea to friends most of them countered that I didn’t even watch much TV so why would I want to spend a lot of money on one.

Eventually I not only gave up on the idea, but did a 180 and sold my current TV and have gone without my own personal one for several months now. So not only did I save money but time as well.

So instead of a lot of debt for items I didn’t really need, I ended up with a retirement account with a very good starting amount in it.

Have some great ways of saving money? There is a great list of the very best money saving tips forming.

As I mentioned before, I get 5% back with the Citi Platinum Select mtvU Visa when I go to restaurants, bookstores, or movie theaters and with the Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard when I go to gas stations, drugstores, and grocery stores. But what about other purchases? For most of these I then use the MBNA/Fidelity Investments 529 College Rewards Card.

This card pays 2% cash back in the form of a deposit into a Fidelity 529 account. The deposits are made every 3 months (March 30, June 30, Sep 30, and Dec 30). You can receive rewards up to $1,500 annually so this can cover up to 75k of spending per year that you don’t have other special cards for.

So what about this 529 plan?
This could be a great excuse to open up a 529 plan for your children or you could even get the distributions out yourself and have a great cashback card. You will want to open up a 529 plan with Fidelity before you begin so that you can input that account number on the application form. There are four options but they seem to be pretty much the same. I went with the Unique National Plan by New Hampshire.

You can choose between two different investment options on how to invest the money. There are age based plans that get more conservative as the target date approaches. There are also custom plans that set a certain asset allocation between stocks, bonds, and money market funds. You can choose anything between 100% stocks to 100% bonds and money market funds. I went with one of the age options. I decided to choose a fairly conservative date of 2012 so that it would be fairly constant. You can also change the plan if you wish. If you want to keep the money in the account long term you should probably invest more into equities. If you want to withdraw the money immediately and simply have an awesome cash back card you can invest mostly in fixed income funds.

The next decision to make is who to put as the beneficiary. You could select your children and start a college fund for them. Another option is to make yourself the beneficiary. The latter really works well for me as a college student with no children. I can withdraw the money anytime and face no penalties or taxes, even on the growth. Even if you aren’t in college you can still withdraw the money that you (or MBNA’s rewards) deposited without any penalty. If the beneficiary doesn’t have any college expenses then they must pay income tax and a 10% penalty on the growth of the fund but no one pays anything on taking the principal out.

The only drawback is that you must set up a monthly deposit of $50 or pay an annual fee. But since you can take that money out that shouldn’t be a problem. Just don’t withdraw all of the money in the account or they will close it. There is a 0.30% annual maintenance fee for administering the account but in the grand scheme of things that is fairly insignificant.

That sounds like too much work…
After you get everything set up there is no work at all other than getting your money out when you want it. If you don’t want to bother with a 529 plan, though, then there is also a MBNA/Fidelity Investment Rewards card that gives 1.5% back straight into a brokerage account. There are no minimums or fees with their brokerage accounts so it’s no problem if you just wanted to use it to get cash back. If you go with that card instead, you might want to check out the $100 Fidelity new account bonus being offered.

Overall, though, I am very happy with the 529 card. The extra cash back is definitely worth it. I can change the asset allocation and beneficiary if I later decide to use it for college savings for my children one day.

You can get 10,000 Thank you points when you apply for the AT&T Universal Rewards Card and make a purchase within 3 months. You can use the points for various items but the most cash equivalent is a $100 gift card available for various merchants or a similar check towards student loans.

It appears to also give 5% back on AT&T products purchased directly from them but this is probably not that useful to most people. As mentioned when discussing the Citibank Dividend Platinum Select, this card also gives 5% back at gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies for 12 months. There is a 0% balance transfer offer for those that like to play that game. And of course, no annual fee.

If you decide to take advantage of its balance transfer offer, be aware that you will want to make a purchase with the card first. Then pay it off before requesting th BT so you can get the $100 bonus and pay no interest. As with many other Citibank cards, you have 12 months to make the balance transfer and then you have 0% interest from the time you initiate it. There is also no fee to transfer balances.

You also may be able to combine it with the $40 bonus from cardoffers.com by clicking through that site first.

Normally I wouldn’t write a post to simply say that there is no promotion or sign up bonus for a particular deal. However, I have been playing around with google analytics lately. I noticed that I am getting on average a search or two a day from people who it appears are looking for info about tradeking and any promotions or sign up bonuses available.

So a little over a week ago I used their online chat to ask about promotions. They told me there are none available at this time. Gave me a line about tradeking looking to attract customers with their superior product and customer service. I bet the csr has that phrase ready to cut and paste I even asked about a promotional code, bluebird, which was supposed to last until July 15th but he said it had already expired. He also didn’t know of any plans to have another promotion in the future.

I took advantage of a promotion there earlier this year, I think in April. It was fairly easy, deposit $1000 and get a signup bonus of $100 when you made a trade. Only requirement was that you keep $100 in equity in your account for 6 months. So easiest way to do it was to purchase a stock or etf and pull your money out minus enough to keep you over 100 of value in your account even if your stock tanks. It was really simple. Seems to smartest thing would be to purchase about $130 or so of a stock or etf. They have had other deals too, some with values of $50.

Overall the account seems pretty good. I don’t like the site as much as say Ameritrade or Scottrade and I have heard that it can be slow. Still, they have market and limit orders for $4.95 so it could be a decent account for someone that wanted to get their feet wet and keep trading costs low. There are other options out there, though, so it would probably be a good idea just to wait until another promotion if it interests you.

I’ll try to update when/if I hear about another promotion. This one was one of the simplier signup bonuses I did this year.

First of all, today is the grand opening of the Festival of Under 30 Finances! I contributed my post on forgetting the bookstore in favor of buying textbooks online. There is also a question that each submitter answers for each carnival. This week’s question was what was/is your major in college and what impact does this have on the job you have now? Go check it out, there are some interesting answers and posts there.

I also forgot to mention last week that I submitted my post about Using Discovercard’s Get More Promotion to Save 5% to the Carnival of Personal Finance at Raising4boys. Oops.

This week I gave the advice Forget the Bookstore, Buy Textbooks Online in the Carnival of Debt Reduction at My Money Forest. I also submitted my post about saving 5% back at restaurants, bookstores, and movie theaters with the Citi mtvU card in the Festival of Frugality at Frugal for Life. My advice to start a Roth IRA early rounded out this week over at Experiments in Finance who hosted the Carnival of Investing.

Earlier this year I made the decision to open an ira.  If you are unsure if you should open one, check out my earlier advice to start investing early with a Roth IRA.  I wasn’t that confident about where and how to open and invest in one. As tax day came closer, with it the deadline for 2005 contributions, I made a decision to invest in target year retirement funds. These are basically funds that set a certain asset allocation based on your retirement date. When you are young they invest heavily in stocks and shift more into fixed income and bonds as you get closer to retirement.

I think that these are a great idea for those that aren’t that knowledgeable about asset allocation, like me, or who just want to put their money away and enjoy other facets of life. I think in the future I will set my own allocation with index funds and possibly ETFs as I learn more and invest larger sums. Until then I think I will stick with the target date ones.

Well, I made a list of what I wanted; I guess I am hard to please.

I didn’t want to pay an annual fee maintenance fee. The account would have to be really good to have this every year.

I wanted a large selection of mutual and index funds for later when I got more experience.

A low expense ratio. The expense ratio refers to the amount they take off the top of your money every year for choosing the assets in your fund. Obviously this is a big deal as this will become very significant after years of compounding.

Trading fees, account and fund minimums, and my general feeling about the company were also important.

So the question, which choice is best?

Well, you can go with a discount brokerage. If you are going to be purchasing etfs then the price per trade could be a big factor. I am probably gonna stay away from them for the time being so there isn’t an advantage here. Also, some will charge fees for purchasing mutual funds as well. This didn’t appeal to me as I want to have the option of dollar cost averaging.

I eventually narrowed it down to three companies and compared the minimum requirements, fees, expense ratios, etc on their funds with a target retirement of 2040-2050.

Vanguard: I have heard great things about the mutual funds at Vanguard so I decided to look at them first. They have the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund 2005 through 2050 in increments of 5 years. The 2040 (VFORX), 2045 (VTIVX), and 2050 (VFIFX) all have expense ratios of around 0.21%. However, it takes $3,000 to open an account and there is a $10 fee for each fund you hold that is under 5k. So great expense ratio, but large minimums to avoid fees.

Fidelity: I had already had a brokerage account from their previous promotion so I was already familiar with their website and had poked around looking at different funds. I knew they had some very low expense index funds so that could be a plus later. They call their target date funds the Fidelity Freedom Funds and have 2005 through 2040. Being in my 20s the 2040 (FFFFX) was the main one I looked at. It has a higher expense ratio of 0.76%. The good thing, though, is that if you can contribute $200 a month you can open what they call a SimpleStart IRA. This allows you to avoid the $2,500 minimum that most of their funds have. This would be great for someone who wanted to start one but didn’t have a lot of savings he felt comfortable putting away at the moment.

T. Rowe Price: I wasn’t too familiar with them but then again a year ago I didn’t know what a Roth IRA was so that shouldn’t stop me from investigating. They have the T. Rowe Price Retirement funds from ages 2005 through 45. I zoomed in on the 2040 (TRRDX) and 2045 (TRRKX) ones. The expense ratios for these are in the 0.80s. It only takes 1k to open an ira with them but like Vanguard, you must pay a $10 fee for every fund that has less than 5k in it unless you have $50,000 in assets there. Overall, they have the same account fees as Vanguard but higher expense ratio. The benefit being an opening requirement in between the two.

I haven’t done much research into the Schwab Target 2040 (SWERX) or JPMorgan SmartRetirement 2040 (SMTAX) after seeing expense ratios of 0.99 and 1.30 respectively. Just seems too high. I might as well get a regular mutual fund for that cost. So is that enough symbols for you yet?

I ultimately went with Vanguard. Honestly, I waited until I had over 4k ready to go before I even started doing research as I wasn’t aware of programs like Fidelity’s Simplestart ira. So overall the main concern was what I wanted long term for the account. I liked the fact that Vanguard has a very low expense ratio on their funds. This will definetely pay over time and make up for that $10 fee I paid earlier. They also have a pretty good reputation for being investor friendly and not just profit friendly. Hopefully this will continue in the future.

I am curious if you have tried any of the choices I listed. If so, what is your opinion of them? Or are there any good choices out there that I missed?

Flexo at Consumerism Commentary is offering to give free hosting to the first five personal finance bloggers who post in Get Away from BlogSpot. He has all the details there but I’ll try to provide the gist of it. First of all, this is a great opportunity. You can use typepad or wordpress on your new host and he will install it for you and provide 1GB of storage at Dreamhost. You would simply need to purchase your own domain name which shouldn’t cost more than $10/year.

I have played around with BlogSpot before trying out my own hosting with wordpress and I enjoyed the latter much, much more. There is alot more flexibility and I feel I have more control over my site. Plus I get a real web address instead of something.blogspot.com. There are still a few more spots left as I’m writing this so hurry and check it out.

I’ve waited until my credit card payments cleared to post my montly net worth so it wouldn’t throw the numbers off. I also updated it on NetworthIQ.

Overall I am pretty happy with an almost 25% increase this month. I am getting closer to my goal of reaching 9k net worth by October.

As far as changes go…I paid off a little of my credit card debt from the 0% interest balance transfer game so thats why the savings decreased. I also got my first payment from my MBNA 529 card, a nice deposit for $99.72. Getting cashback is fun

Luckily the stock market stopped melting down like it did at the end of May/early June so that increased a little. My brokerage accounts were helped by a $500 bonus from Ameritrade and a little uptick in a few stocks.

Other than that, nothing too exciting. I am using Kelly’s Blue Book value on a trade in for the estimate of my car’s worth. I have debated whether to use that value or the much higher private property one. I imagine one day when I do sell it that I will sell it to a family member or friend if any are interested or use it in a trade in. Either way the trade in value probably fits better. Part of me wants to remove it as I will only sell it to buy another one but I’ll leave it for the time being.

Not too long ago I read a post at Tired but Happy that detailed her Credit Card Limits and asked for others to respond with theirs. I have been meaning to make a post like this for awhile so I definetely will. I will try to put them in the order I received them…

A local credit union Visa: $3,500
This was my first card. I got it over 4 years ago. I was totally oblivious to what credit was and how it worked. In retrospect, though, getting one from a credit union as a starter card wasn’t a bad idea. To give you an idea about how unaware I was, the lady asked me if I was just getting the card to establish credit. I said naw, I just want one in case of an emergency. Ahh, the bliss of ignorance

Capital One No Hassel Visa: $600
Yes, that is 600, not 6k. I got this card as I thought It might be a good idea to have more than one as my limit on the other card was still fairly low. I didn’t know anything about cards so it was simply a response to a mailed offer. I was very dissapointed in the original $300 limit. After two years they increased it to double when they upgraded it on their own to the no hassel version but its still a joke. Its my second oldest card so I have kept it because of its affect on my Fico score, even with my dislike of Capital One. They haven’t allowed me to increase my limit on the phone.

the next few cards are almost a year old.

Discover Student Card: $1,000
I got this a little over a year ago. I received a mailed invitation for a student card and decided that it might be a good idea to get a card with the 4 major issuers. No other logical reason than that. They haven’t increased my limit yet on this one. I am going to call sometime soon and see about getting it rasied to take advantage of the current get more promotion.

American Express Blue Cash: $6,700
Like the discover, this card was a response to a mailed invitation and an attempt to get one from each of the four major card companies. I also really liked the way the blue cash card looked, lol. It started at $2,000 limit and I have increased it through the automated online option they have.

Citibank Dividend Platinum Select Mastercard: $7,200
Ahh, this first card I received as I began to learn about credit and finances. I got this card to save 5% back at gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies. I started out at $3,200 and it has been increased through the online button.

Chase Cash Plus Rewards Visa: $9,000
After I actived the Citi card above, I learned about the 0% Balance Transfer Game. So I needed another card to get gas and groceries with. This was the other similar offer and I am very glad that I got it. They have been very good at classifying every purchase I have had at gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies as everyday purchases for the 5% back. I originally started with $5,000. I used this card as my main card for all purchases for awhile. I applied for a credit increase to its current value online and they happily obliged. It cost me a hard inquiry though.

Chase Amazon Visa: $5,000
I was using Amazon.com alot for purchasing books for classes and I decided to get a card after I saw that they offered a $30 bonus and 3 reward points for dollar spent at Amazon.com. I originally had a $2,500 limit but got it increased to 5k at the same time I asked for an increase to the Chase Cash Plus Rewards Card.

MBNA/Charles Schwab Visa: $500
The sole reason I opened this card for a $100 bonus. I originally was given a limit of $2,500. I reallocated some of that limit to my Fidelity Investment Rewards card after I obtained it. I kept it open as I think closing it might decrease my average age. But now that I think about it, the change would be very insignificant, especially with all the new cards I received so I probably will close it eventually.

the next few cards were obtained earlier this year

Citibank Professional MasterCard: $6,000
I applied for this card for the 10k thank you points (~$100). It also has a 0% balance transfer option that I will take advantage of in a couple of months. The 3 points back on restaurants and certain office supply stores is nice but I haven’t used it all that much.

Citibank Simplicity MasterCard: $4,500
Like above, I applied for the 10k thank you points. I haven’t used it much and I probably won’t accept for another 0% bt.

MBNA/Fidelity Investment Rewards: $4,000
I was originally given a 2k limit but I transfer some of the limit from the Charles Schwab. This card gives 1.5% back on all purchases in the form of a deposit to your Fidelity brokerage account. I had just taken advantage of the $100 bonus offer from Fidelity so this was a perfect card to use for all purchases I didn’t have a specific card for. However, not too long after I got the card I discovered another one that I like even better…

MBNA/Fidelity 529 College Rewards MasterCard: $3,200
Well, I had heard about the 529 card before I applied for the Investment rewards one. However, I didn’t realize that I could make myself the beneficiary and take out the money tax free while I was in college. Also, I didn’t realize that there was no fee if you had automatic monthly deposits into your plan. So I got this card a few weeks after the above. Its now my main card for purchases that I don’t have a specific card for. I might transfer the limit from the other Fidelity card to this one in the future.

Citibank mtvU Visa: $4,000:
This is my newest card and I am loving it. It gets the equivalent of 5% back at restaurants, movie theaters, and bookstores. I am also able to get the cashback for fastfood and even at some bars. It has 0% apr for 6 months on purchases and balance transfers and I am taking advantage of both. I bet this limit will be increased alot as I am using it quite frequently.

Whew, that was alot. Over 55k in credit. Not too bad considering just over a year ago I had less than 3k. I will probably consolidate the citi professional and simplicity when I use up their bt offers as well as close and consolidate the fidelity cards into the 529 card. After I redeem my rewards on the amazon card from chase I will close that one too as the mtvu is much superior. Later this year I am going to apply for some more cards to finish off the top bonuses, get some more 0% offers, and increase my credit limit, hopefuly over 100k, by the end of the year.

If you notice on my blogroll I have added a new column, The Under 30 Honor Roll. Kira at Penny Foolish has set up a group for personal finance bloggers that are under 30. Just contact her about joining and then visit the Under 30 Honor Roll Forum. We are also going to have our own carnival, the Festival of Under 30 Finances to deal with issues that are particularly important to us young ones.

The first Carnival is going to be held next week, Friday July 14 and each subsequent carnival will be held two weeks after. If you would like to submit a post, visit the Blog Carnival. Any article that is relevelant to younger workers is welcome. Each carnival is also going to have a specific question that each person who submits an article should answer. Normally the host of that particular week will choose the question.

The Citi mtvU Card is quickly becoming one of my favorite cards. It is a student card that gives you 5% back at restaurants, bookstores, movie theaters, record stores, and video rental stores in the form of 5 thank you points and 1% back on other purchases. Even better, any purchase at a merchant who classifies themselves under one of those categories will net you 5 points, even if it really isn’t say a restaurant or bookstore. For example, you can receive 5% back at Amazon.com, fast food places, and even some bars. It also gives 10% back on purchases from the mtv shop but I doubt I’ll be using that.

This card is supposed to be for students only but they did not make me verify that I attended the college I go to. I am guessing that if you are young, have student loans, and nothing raises a red flag on your credit report you will get approved without needing any verification. I have read that you can be denied for having over 10k in revolving, ie credit card debt so might want to avoid the 0% Balance Transfer game when you want to apply for it.

Speaking of which, it has 0% apr on purchases AND balance transfers for 6 months. I took out a bt for about 90% of the credit limit and left the rest for purchases. Has worked out great. And of course there is no annual fee. If you apply, do so through CardOffers to get a $40 bonus from them.

There are also some other ways to get points. You get 25 bonus points per month as long as you pay your bill ontime and don’t go over your credit limit. If you want to deal with the hassel of sending in your grades you can receive points for that as well. The scale is:

You can download the mtvU grade submission form and send it with a copy of your grades. I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t tell you how easy it is or if you have to send an official transcript. So far I have had the card for one statement and gotten 5% back all my dining, including fast food and one bar. I even got 50 points instead of 25 under the description of “Good customer bonus.” I don’t know if thats a mistake but I am not going to complain. Combining this with the Citi Dividend Platinum Select and Discover Card get more program you can get 5% back on a very wide selection of purchases.

One of the major expenses for a college student each semester is the purchase of textbooks. It seems that they are getting more costly every year. Sometimes it costs over $100 for the latest edition of some book whose only update was a few fixed errors from the previous edition. And then if you try to sell them back at the end of the semester to the bookstore you are normally offered only a fraction of the cost.

A great alternative to using the bookstore at your campus is to buy and sell the books online. Not only can you get them much cheaper, you can sell your used books for higher prices than the bookstore will normally give you. Sometimes you can also get paperback or other versions of the book that are exactly the same but much cheaper.

I have been doing this at Amazon.com for the last few years and it has saved me a bundle. It’s very easy to search for the books you need and you can look through the different sellers of new and used copies. Having the ISBN number on the back of the book makes it really easy to make sure you have the right book. When the semester is over you can also sell books through the same marketplace. It’s a simple process, after listing you get an email when it sells and you mail the book off. Every two weeks they deposit the funds into your checking account. Half.com seems to be another popular choice. Between this and Amazon there should be a large enough selection to find the ones you need. These two are probably also the best to sell on that I know of as they both have a very large customer base.

When trying to find the best deal on buying textbooks, you can use websites that aggregate a listing of all the major online bookstores. Several I have found are BestBookBuys, CampusI, and FetchBook. You can search for a book on these sites and see the prices, availability, and condition so you can get the best possible deal out there.

If you do buy and sell to the bookstore at your campus, realize that you are paying a very large surcharge for a little convenience. In my opinion, for the time it takes to search for books you want to buy or ship the ones you are selling, it is definitely not worth it.

As I previously wrote, a great method keeping track of your accounts and finances is by using Yodlee to consolidate them into one place. Yodlee has decided to upgrade to something called the MoneyCenter Platform. They have a demo and some screenshots to show off the changes and new look. It looks like they are enhancing the ability to manage and categorize expenses and transactions. They also say they are adding a financial calender and Yodlee billpay using credit card accounts. It will be very interesting to see how the latter functions. I use the MBNA billpay feature on their cards and it is incredibly useful.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday. It’s a great time to enjoy family and have barbecues, picnics, fireworks, or however you celebrate. In case any foreign viewers aren’t aware, it’s the day we Americans celebrate whooping the Brits.

As we celebrate the day of the adoption of the US Declaration of Independence, I can’t help but think of a story I recently read about one of my favorite historical figures. I suppose I will give another factoid history lesson. Similar to when I discussed a legend about the history of the song taps and the origins of Memorial day.

For those that aren’t aware, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were both on the committee formed to write the Declaration with Jefferson ultimately chosen as the primary author. Interestingly, they were also the only two signers of it that later became President.

After a bitter presidential election in 1800, they were pretty much enemies. Much later in their elder years they began to write one another and became very close friends. They both wanted to outlive the other, I presume a playful joke. In the several days leading up to July 4th, 1826 Jefferson would ask if it was the fourth yet. When that morning finally arrived, exactly 50 years to the date of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, he was told and by noon he had passed away. Several hours later, Adams also passed away, with his last words being “Jefferson still survives.” Obviously he wasn’t aware of his death yet. What irony of both passing away on the 50th anniversary.

Jefferson left very specific instructions on what words would be on his tombstone, insisting that there would be no deviations or anything added. It refers to him as the author of the Declaration of Independence but doesn’t mention his presidency. A little food for thought.

I suppose that concludes this holiday history lesson. I hope everyone out there takes it easy today and has fun, not thinking about money or finance at all!

After much thinking I’ve decided to make a financial goal for the summer. I already fully funded my Roth IRA for the year, which was one of my earlier goals. Because of playing the 0% balance transfer game I figure that trying to increase my savings wouldn’t be that logical. So I needed to look at another way to quantify how I was doing at managing my money.

I’ve decided to try to increase my net worth from ~4k in June to 9k some time in September. During this school year my net worth will probably decrease so I decided this would be a good goal to achieve by the time arrive back home from my internship. I know about how much I will be paid this summer and what other income I should receive. So in reality, achieving this goal is really about minimizing expenses. Of course, any unforseen expenses or income received could throw off my calculations. Looking over the numbers it looks like it will be pretty tough for me to reach this goal. I wanted it to be fairly difficult, however, so that I will have to try hard to accomplish it. If nothing else, it will provide a rationalization I can use when I am considering making a purchase I don’t need.

I also decided to also post it at the No Credit Needed Network. This is a nice little site where members post their goals and NCN makes a nice little pie chart and listing to tell all the details. If you have a financial goal you should join up too. Some people have even posted some non-finance related goals, such as losing weight. I am thinking of making a listing for that myself. My goal of growing my networth is now posted so you can keep track of it there too. All in all I think having this out in the open will at least make me more accountable to following through with it.

Discover Card has a rewards program named the Get More Program which gives 5% cash back on purchases made at specific merchants or for specific categories. Normally the promotion covers items that are hot or purchased heavily that season. Adding this to other rewards cards, such as Citi Dividend, allows you to increase the number of purchases you get 5% back on. The Get More Program is only offered for the Platinum and student cards, not the Miles or Gas card. This makes sense because the former two have otherwise basic rewards programs.

I got a student card about a year ago. The rewards program on normal purchases for this and the platinum card is very mediocre, giving low rewards which only reach 1% after 3k in purchases. However, the Get More Program makes this card fairly useful. It might not be worth the trouble to get this for just this use. However, if you already have one of these cards you should definately sign up it. Its easy to register, just log onto your account and click a few buttons. They send you an email to confirm that your registered. Cash back can be redeemed in $20 increments as a credit to your card, a check, or even a deposit into your bank account. You can also get even more back if you redeem as gift cards, increasing your rewards anywhere from 20% to 100%, depending on the gift card merchant.

Overall, this is a pretty slick marketing gimmick for Discover. I pretty much keep a card in my wallet all year round that I normally wouldn’t carry with me. Most people tend to stick to one or two cards that they use all the time. If they get people using the card often based on what’s hot for that season many will continue to use it for other purchases as well.

The current Get More promotion started in July and lasts until the end of September (07/01/06-09/30/06) and covers:

Tuition: from preschool to college

Apparel:

• Gap
• Kohl’s
• Marschalls
• TJ Max
• Famous Footwear

Office/Home:

• Dell
• Office Depot
• OfficeMax
• Staples
• Linens ‘n Things
• Pier 1 Imports

Here’s the details and disclore if you wanna read the details.

Sign up to earn 5% Cashback Bonus on tuition and payments (at daycare centers, pre-schools, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, and correspondence, business, secretarial, vocational or trade schools) and at Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, Kohl’s, Pier 1 Imports, Linens N Things, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Famous Footwear, Gap, and Dell from 7/1/06 (or the date on which you sign up, whichever is later) through 9/30/06, subject to a cap of $2,000 in purchases. Offer applies to purchases that are submitted to us under Merchant Category Codes 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249, 8299, 8351 and/or are made at specified merchant locations. Tuition purchases do not include purchases made at park districts, bookstores, education supply stores, camps, music, art and dance schools. Allow up to 5 weeks for this reward to be added to your Cashback Bonus Account. You will continue to earn a Cashback Bonus of up to 1% on all other purchases. Discover Platinum Gas, Home Improvement, Restaurant and Education Card members are not eligible to participate in this promotion. See Cashback bonus Terms and Conditions for furthur details.