Pragmatic Finance

These days your credit history is becoming an inseparable part of our financial lives. Want a loan for a car or house? That lender is going to check your credit before he decides to loan to you and how much interest to charge. And of course if you’re going to apply for a credit card they are going to check it to help them make their decision. Even car insurance companies are starting to use it to help determine the rates they will give you.

In addition to looking over your history, potential lenders will also look at your FICO score, which is a measure of your credit worthiness. The higher the score the more willing they are to give you loans with lower rates. The score ranges from 300 to 850 with most in the 600 to 800 range. A score over 720 is usually needed for the best rates. If you’re curious about your current score you could pay to get an official one. Everyone is entitled to a free report from each credit bureau once a year. I would recommend pulling it for free and using a FICO score estimator.

If you wanna beat a game you gotta know the rules first. Unfortunately the exact equation is a secret but there are some vague guidelines about how the score is calculated. There are five main categories looked at and each has several factors inside it. Read the rest of this entry »

The Question of the Day Marathon is almost over, only a few days left. It has been really interesting reading all of the different responses. Here’s my question:

What factors affected the career you chose? Was it purely about the pay or were there other aspects that influenced the decision?

Feel free to give some background into the reasons, events, or decisions that led to your choice. Or if your still in school like me, share some things that shaped your choice of major and what has affected the types of jobs or internships you have tried to get so far.

This is my first time hosting a festival. For those that are unfamiliar, this new carnival is aimed at collecting advice and information that would be financially useful to those under the age of 30. Both young and old can submit articles and there is also a specific question each week that you can answer if you wish. If you want to participate in the next edition at Ninja Pigeon, head on over to the blogcarnival and submit your post. Don’t forget to answer the question in the comments field too. I tried to point out things I liked about the articles or give comments when I had time to fully read them.

Sally at Through a Glass Darkly wrote an article which answered my question in the form of a letter: Financial Advice (a letter to my younger self). This was a great piece that really illustrated some of the common challenges when a person first enters college. She tells her younger self about the important of learning to manage money for the first time and making budget priorities. A great read. Read the rest of this entry »

If your reading blogs then chances are you at least some purchases online. In addition to the cash back you can get when using certain credit cards, you can also use a program from Fatwallet to get even more cash back. Fatcash or Fatwallet cash back allows you to get a percentage back if you buy from certain sites after going through Fatwallet.

Most of the discounts I have gotten range from 2 to 4% but there are some that are in the double digits or are a straight cash value back. All you have to do is sign up for an account and then visit the stores page. You click on the store you plan on going to and then click on the cashback link on the right hand side.

Once you do a new window appears with a popup confirming the cashback you will receive.

Simply shop through the new window of the website you went to and make your purchase. Eventually fatwallet will post the transaction on your cashback account. After that it will take several months before you can retrieve the money to make sure you don’t return the item or do something else to reverse the sale.

If you already plan to make purchases at a store online this is a great way to save money. You can request a check be sent out. I did that earlier this year and I think it arrived within a week or two. There also appears to be an option now receive paypal payments and donate to some Red Cross Funds.

I will be hosting the Festival of Under 30 Finances this week so don’t forget to submit an article! Every festival has a unique question so don’t forget to answer it as well. This week’s question is If you could go back and tell yourself one piece of financial related advice as you first entered college or the job market, what would that be?

Also, if you are a personal finance bloggers who is under 30 and think you might want to join the network simply send an email to pennyfoolish at gmail dot com. New versions of the Under 30 Honor Roll site and forums were put up awhile back. Check them out if you have the time.

Oh and the last day for submission is wednesday. Anything submitted after then will be received by the next week’s host, Ninja Pigeon.

It appears that Citibank took the links to apply for the Citi Dividend Platinum Select card off their site. If you follow an old link and try to apply you get a message that they are making changes to the card. Unfortunately “improvements” is probably not the right term. Several months ago I discussed about Chase no longer accepting new applications for their gas/grocery/pharmacy 5% back cards and the possibility of the end of 5% rewards cards. I was hoping Read the rest of this entry »

I absolutely love to take advantage of promotions and sign up bonuses. So I decided to compile a list of the best current ones that are available. This list contains mostly ones that I have done or tried to do and have a good payout versus the amount of effort or time to complete.

Read the rest of this entry »

I am finally back from my summer internship. I had alot of fun and kept pretty busy. I will probably write some more details about it later. I was extremely busy the last week or two so if you’ve noticed the limited number of posts thats why. I should be back to posting normally now.

This is a summer’s worth of credit card offers. Sadly, out of that big stack there is not one good 0% balance transfer offer. Well, there was some checks from Chase but they’ve expired. Perhaps having 90% utilization on some cards is affecting their willingness to give me good offers.

Another nice month of change. It looks like I am on my way to reaching my goal of 9k net worth although it could easily be derailed by unforeseen expenses. I believe I will have one more really good month or so before school starts back. After that I will probably start seeing much more red instead of green numbers.

Most of the changes came from paying off monthly credit card bills. I added the 1k cd from the netbank promotion. I actually started the deal including the cd in late April but I forgot to add it. So if you look back to the previous updates you will understand where I messed up. I had been including it as regular savings.

I went ahead and took out the bonds category. Although I would like to try out some treasury bonds and bills in the future I don’t think I will in the next few months. I’ll add it when and if I do.

One more change, I added a column for the money in my wallet. I try to keep a little as possible in there but I didn’t want it to throw off my calculations.

The next two months should be interesting with significant changes. I will have to check the dates but I think much of my 0% balance transfer money is due so the credit card debt will greatly decrease.

JLP over at AllFinancialMatters from time to time will post a question of the day for his readers to answer according to their own personal situations. It’s very interesting to read the different and varying responses. He has decided to make a marathon of it during the month of August. Each weekday a different blogger is going to post a question to answer. I signed up and will be posting my question on Tuesday, August 29.

I will list each question and a link to it in this post. This post will be edited to include each question so be sure to check it out and return on the 29th to answer my question.

1. AllFinancialMatters asks If your budget required you to give up something you like because you just didn’t have enough money to cover your expenses, what would that be?
2. Caustic Musings wonders What is the weekly average cost per person for food in your household, including groceies, snacks, and eating out?
3. The Investimist asks What was the last thing you splurged on that you really didn’t need?
4. Experiments in Finance ask us How many credit cards do you have and what’s their combined credit limit?
5. FreeMoneyFinance ponders Which is more important to financial success: saving money (spending less than you earn through cost cutting) making your income as high as possible (earning more money)?
6. Single Ma wonders In terms of your annual gross salary, what percentage do you save? Are you happy with that amount or do you think you could do better?
7. Young and Broke wants to know If you had $10,000, one day, and one store to spend it in, what store would you choose?
8. Savvy Saver asks us If you had to pinpoint one financial decision (good or bad) that put you on the path to where you are now, what would it be? If you could do it over, would you change your decision?
9. Young Finance Guy wonders What do you consider an expensive night out?
10. Money Dummy inquires as to What’s the most unusual, quirky, or bizarre thing involving money that’s happened to your personally?
11. Steve Braun wants to know your opinion on What percentage of financial success comes from “financial skills” and what percentage comes from “character?” Share some examples to support your theory.
12. Mighty Bargain Hunter asks us What’s the best deal that you’ve ever gotten in a store?
13. Journey to financial Freedom ponders If you have any side income other than your paychecks. If so, how do you generate it?
14. Penny Foolish wonders What are your vices?
15. Consumerism Commentary ponders While growing up, what were you taught about personal money management by your immediate family and surroundings (direct or by example, positive and negative), and how do these ideas factor into your life now?
16. No Credit Needed gives us a two part question about What is the first and last thing you purchased on credit (debt)?
17. Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge asks us How much of a balance do you leave on your checking account/s?
18. Chipping away wonders If tomorrow you were to suddenly find yourself unemployed, what would your action plan be and how much trouble do you feel you would be in?
19. Udandi & the Craft of Money asks What is your hobby and how much money do you spend on it?
20. Money and Values wants to know Do you involve your values in your money decisions? If so, what are some examples? If not, why not?
21. I ask What factors affected the career you chose? Was it purely about pay or were there other aspects that influenced the decision?
22. City Girl’s Financial Blog wonders In the past 24 hours, what have you done in relation to money?
23. Get Rich Slowly asks What does money mean to you?

And that concludes the question of the day marathon. Thanks AFM for coming up with this great idea. It was a lot of fun and extremely interesting reading through all of the responses.

This week I participated in two carnivals. My post that tells what I consider are the most important features for online savings accounts is shown over at the carnival of personal finance at All Financial Matters. I show how to get 2% back on all purchases with the MBNA/Fidelity 529 card at the festival of frugality at My Financial Journey.