Just over a week ago, USA Today ran an interesting piece on where consumers plan on spending their economic stimulus tax rebate. They also compared it to how people actually spent their rebates back in 2001.

For starters, this is how people say they’ll be spending their current rebate:

23.3% - Keep in savings account
21.4% - Apply to credit card bills
6.5% - Car payment
5.1% - Home repair
5.1% - Gas/energy bills
4.2% - Buy things for the house
3.7% - Small daily expenses
2.3% - Buy clothes for kids
1.9% - Buy food/groceries
1.4% - Buy clothes for self/spouse
1.4% - Buy consumer electronics
1.4% - Apply to mortgage payment

From an economic standpoint, that doesn’t sound very stimulating.

But wait… What can history teach us?

Here’s a look at how people actually spent their rebates that last time around. The percentages were expressed in non-standard way, so I’ve just ranked them from greatest to smallest:

1. Movies
2. Computers
3. Drugs/sundries
4. Books
5. Women’s clothing
6. Apparel (presumably not including women’s clothing)
7. Electronics (presumably not including computers)
8. Kitchen appliances
9. Restaurant meals
10. Toys

Hmmm… That’s more like it.

Rampant consumerism, just like the bigwigs in Washington envisioned it.

After having written about the upcoming stamp price increase way in back in February, I almost forgot about it myself. In case you missed it, stamp prices went up from $0.41 to $0.42 this past Monday. Hopefully you have “Forever” stamps. If not, you’ll need those pesky little penny stamps to round things out.

Whatever you do, don’t send off a bunch of bills with the wrong postage on them — there’s nothing worse than getting a bill that you paid on time returned to you after the due date because of insufficient postage.

While we’re talking stamps, why not hop on over to Stamps.com for a bunch of free postage and a free digital? You can always cancel if you don’t like it.

This is just a quick note to let you know that Discover Business is now offering a $100 signup bonus. Simply apply for the card and spend a total of $1000 within the first three months to qualify for the bonus. Other attractive features of this card include:

» 0% APY on purchases/balance transfers for 12 months
» Up to 5% cash back on select purchases
» No annual fee

Keep in mind that anyone can apply for a business credit card. Simply enter you SSN if they ask for a taxpayer ID, and use your personal name as you business name.

This brings the total cash available from credit card bonus offers up to $1300!

I’ve devoted a lot of time recently to thinking about asset allocation. Thus, I was quite interested when the latest issue of “In the Vanguard” arrived and I saw that they had an article called “International Stocks: What’s a Reasonable Amount?”

In it, they argue that investors always seem to chase the flavor of the month and that, lately, that has meant loading up on international stocks. In fact, 85% of the net purchases of mutual funds in the first three quarters of 2007 were global or international funds. But given that today’s leaders are often tomorrow’s laggards, is that a good idea? [more]

It’s interesting that every time I talk about the advantages of compact fluorescent bulbs, I see the same criticisms over and over. Thus, I though I’d spend a bit of time responding to each of them. [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 “Readers’ Choice: The Best Online Brokers.” Also included was “Are ‘Contactless’ (RFID) Credit Cards Safe?” from creditaddict.com.

The Carnival of Financial Planning included “Financial Infidelity.”

The Festival of Frugality included “Frugal is as Frugal Does?”

The Best of Me Symphony included “The Value of Doing Your Own Taxes.” Also included was “How to Place a Fraud Alert on Your Credit Record” from creditaddict.com.

I just ran across an interesting site that features personal accounts of how people are spending their tax stimulus rebates. Some of the more amusing uses include:

- donating it to the Obama campaign (take that, W!)
- buying plane tickets to catch the New Kids on the Block reunion tour (seriously?)
- treating “a sudden and particularly messy case of giardia contracted by our puppy” (yuck!)
- installing a giant chocolate fountain in the backyard (yum!)

And with that, here are some articles that caught my eye over the past week… [more]

Here’s a bit of weekend fun… Jim over at pfBlueprint asked a bunch of personal finance bloggers what they’d do with a million dollars.

This was my answer:

If a million dollars suddenly fell into my lap, I’d invest the vast majority of it. The concept of “financial freedom” is very attractive to me, so I’d focus on building up that nest egg. I’m not saying that I’ll necessarily quit my job when we reach that magical crossover point, but it’s hard to put a price on being in a position to make that decision.

Boring, but true.

So… What would you do?

(Oh, and don’t forget to click through and read the other answers.)

A reader named Mary recently asked the following:

Could you please tell me how much it costs to run a 100 watt incandescent lightbulb for 8 hours/day over the course of a year? Could you then compare the cost for a year with a compact fluorescent lightbulb? Which wattage CFL would to replace a 100 watt incandescent bulb? I’m new at this. Thanks for your response.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of CFLs, so I think that this is a great question.

Here’s the answer… [more]

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that Blockbuster Total Access is running a new promotion where you get 50% off your first month plus a free $25 Visa gift card*. So…

You can get their 3-at-a-time movie plan for one month plus the $25 gift card in return for just $10 for the first month (and $19.99 thereafter). Moreover, unlike Netflix, you can exchange your movies in their stores, which lets you get more bang for your buck.

Click here to apply.

*Apparently you have to remain a member for six months to get the gift card.