September 30, 2007
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]
September 28, 2007
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]
September 27, 2007
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]
September 26, 2007
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]
September 25, 2007
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]
September 24, 2007
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]