I mentioned the other day that Emigrant Direct had changed everyone’s account number as part of their site upgrade fiasco. I also mentioned that I would try a transfer from ING Direct to Emigrant Direct in order to test whether or not the account number change would screw up transactions with linked accounts. Well… It doesn’t. I pushed a one dollar transfer from my ING Direct Account to my Emigrant Direct account using the original (old) account number and it worked. I have no idea how long this will last, but at least for the time being the old account number works perfectly well.

So why should you care? Well, if you don’t have an Emigrant Direct account, or if you don’t make regular transfers in and out of it, you shouldn’t. But if you’ve previously linked other accounts to Emigrant Direct using the old account number, you can rest assured that your transactions will go through.

Just wanted to post a quick note letting y’all know about a new personal finance discussion forum over at the MBN Forums. We’re launching this as a place for anyone and everyone to discuss issues related to personal finance (broadly defined). These forums are frequented by some of the best and brightest personal finance bloggers out there, so there’s are a ton of expertise just waiting to be utilized. So please stop by and start talking money.

Here’s a quick look at some things that caught my eye over the past week… [more]

Here’s a quick look at some of my favorite posts from a year ago this week:

• Appeal Your Health Insurance Denials - Advice for making sure that insurance company pays the piper.

• Check Writing Tips - A quick rundown of best practices when it comes to writing checks.

Time to dig into the archives again… Here are some of my favorite posts from the month of May…

05/30/06 — Wire Transfers When Closing on a House
05/26/06 — More on the Home Office Tax Deduction
05/24/06 — The Home Office Tax Deduction
05/19/06 — Withdrawing Your Roth IRA Contributions (Followup)
05/17/06 — All About Title Insurance
05/12/06 — Shady Jewelry Store Advertising Tactics
05/09/06 — Rules Regarding No-Interest Family Loans
05/08/06 — Worst. Job. Ever.
05/05/06 — FeedBurner Leaked my Sensitive Personal Information
05/05/06 — Best High Mileage Cars
05/02/06 — Withdrawing Your Roth IRA Contributions

By now we all know that manufacturers often overstate the virtues of whatever it is that they’re selling. Think about the EPA mileage estimates plastered to the window of the last car that you bought. How do these numbers stack up to your real world experience? Well, it’s the same deal in the world of appliances. Size ratings aren’t all that indicative (in an absolute sense) of how big an appliance really is. This is particularly problematic when you start talking about refrigerators — unlike mileage estimates, where you can use the numbers to make relative comparisons amongst models, you can’t necessarily rely on size ratings as a relative measure of usable space in the wonderful world of refrigerators. Let me explain… [more]

Interesting. The results of the most recent money poll indicate that we have a very IKEA-friendly crowd around here… Neary 70% of respondents have been to IKEA, either to shop (62%) or just check it out (6%). And another 17% haven’t shopped there, but would like to. Just a smattering of people either didn’t care to go, or didn’t have any idea what IKEA is (pssst… it’s a ginormous Swedish furniture store that’s all the rage with the cool kids). If you haven’t had a chance to participate, please be sure to drop by the IKEA poll and register your vote.

The other day I dropped by our insurance agent’s office and, on the way back to the car, I noticed that he’s located directly adjacent to an attorney’s office. So, on a whim, I popped in to get a rough idea of how it would cost to have a will prepared. It’s been over a year since I first wrote about needing to update our wills, and we’re still sitting on our hands. [more]

FiveCentNickel participated in four carnivals this week. Here they are along with links to my articles that were included in each.

The Best of Me Symphony included “The Home Office Tax Deduction.” Also included was “Little Brothers, Tampons, and Lollipops” from raising4boys.com.

The Carnival of Personal Finance included “Home Depot Coupons on eBay (Followup).”

The Festival of Frugality included “Reducing Our Electrical Usage, Update #2.”

The Carnival of the Vanities included “(In)Convenience Fees.” Also included was “Monitoring the Sex Offender Registry” from raising4boys.com.

We’re starting to think about painting the interior of our house, and we’re in the market for good paint… At our old house we used Pratt & Lambert with an eggshell finish. It wasn’t cheap, but we really liked it. Unfortunately, Pratt & Lambert is relatively hard to come by in our new area. So… We’re now considering the likes of Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams, Porter, or Duron. To be honest, we’re somewhat biased against the latter two, as we’ve experienced the builder-grade ‘flat’ version of both, and we weren’t happy with them. But to be fair, pretty much all flat-finish paint sucks, so it’s possible that we’d be much happier with a better grade of either of these two brands.

Anyway, we’re once again interested in an eggshell or satin finish and, given the amount of labor involved, we’re not interested in dirt cheap paint. Rather, we want a good, durable paint (but we don’t want to overpay, either). So, can anyone provide any insight? (Preferably based on personal experience.) Thanks!

For more information on moving, check out my Roadmap for a Successful Relocation.