Here are some of my favorite FiveCentNickel (subscribe) posts from a year ago this week:

» Save on Medical Care - Part I
» Saving Money: Focus on Big or Small Items?
» Save on Medical Care - Part II
» Save on Medical Care - Part III

And here’s what was going on two years ago:

» Buying a New Car, Part III
» Buying a New Car, Part IV (Epilogue)
» Accuracy of EPA Gas Mileage Estimates
» Buying a New Car: This Year or Next?

Finally, this is what was happening over at Raising4Boys (subscribe) last year:

» Overscheduled Parents
» Nintendo Wii - Another Hot Christmas Buy - Looks like this will be hot again this year.
» Birthday Party for a Nine Year Old

This morning I saw a USPS delivery truck go by. On any other day, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed, but it’s Sunday. A few minutes later, I saw the truck heading back down the street the other way, presumably having delivered it’s payload. After a bit of Googling, it appears that the USPS will deliver certain Express Mail packages on Sundays. Hmmm… I didn’t know that. I guess you really do learn something every day.

Speaking of learning, check out these articles that caught my eye over the past week. [more]

At the end of a week filled with news about interest rate reductions, here’s a bit of news to brighten your day…

A tipster named John wrote in to say that Pentagon Federal Credit Union has raised their CD rates, bumping their 3, 4, 5, and 7-year CDs to 6.00% APY with a minimum deposit of $1,000.

The only catch is that you have to meet the membership criteria of PFCU before you can open an account. Fortunately, this is pretty easy. If you don’t already belong to an eligible group, you can join the National Military Family Association (NMFA) for $20 (there’s no need to renew the membership once your account is open).

As for my opinion of PenFed, we’ve had CDs there since January of 2004 and we’ve been very happy with them. They’re NCUA insured, they offer consistently high rates, and they frequently run specials such as this to attract new money. They also have competitive mortgage rates with really low closing costs and free 90 day rate locks. All in all, their offerings are well worth the small amount of trouble involved in opening an account.

A reader recently wrote in with the following question:

How do you feel about Dave Ramsey’s program? I am in horrible debt and want to become debt free in the next 4 years.

That’s not a lot of information to go on, but here’s my response… [more]

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

The Carnival of Personal Finance included “Dealing With Found Money, Followup.”

The Best of Me Symphony included “Five Reasons you Should Care About your Credit (FICO) Score.” Also included was “Nine Year Olds and the Tooth Fairy” from raising4boys.com.

The Carnival of Debt Reduction included “Q&A: Debt Reduction Strategy.”

The Carnival of the Capitalists included “Vanguard Reduces Barrier to Entry for Voyager Services.”

On the heels of HSBC Direct’s decision to reduce the APY on their savings accounts, we’ve decided to moving our savings elsewhere. In this case, elsewhere is (gasp!) Bank of America. [more]

Just a quick interest rate update… On the heels of ING Direct’s decision to cut their interest rate, HSBC Direct has now decided to drop their APY by a whopping 0.55%, from 5.05% to 4.50% 3.55%. As of this writing, Emigrant Direct is still holding out at 5.05%, and WT Direct is at 5.15% for accounts balances of $10k or more. Also keep in mind that ING’s Electric Orange Checking offer 4.90% APY on balances over $50k.

Now that I have a Treo smartphone, I’ve been exploring ways to take advantage of having the internet in my pocket. Since I have a strong interest in personal finance, that seemed liked a logical starting point.

What follows is a list of ways you can use an internet-enabled phone to help you manage your money when you’re out and about. To be fair, some of these things can be done with a regular phone, or a simple PDA. That being said, a smartphone lets you combine all of this functionality into one handy little package. [more]

In case you haven’t heard, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was recently fined $500k by the NFL after his staff was caught videotaping the New York Jets’ defensive signals for future reference. What’s particularly interesting about this case is that according to a variety of tax experts, Belichick might be able to deduct the $500k fine as a business expense..

Apparently, this issue turns (at least in part) on whether or not Belichik broke the law, as fines paid to the government for a violation of the law cannot be deducted. Short of that, “ordinary and necessary” business expenses are deductible. [more]

Last week I saw an interesting interview with Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, on The Today Show. He has a new book out, and thus appears to be making the rounds in support of its release. While I can’t cover everything he said in painstaking detail, I did jot down a few of the more interesting tidbits… [more]