I’ve talked a lot in the past about emergency funds — why you should have one, how big it should be, etc. Today I thought I’d ask you guys about your emergency funds. More specifically, I’m curious how many months worth of expenses you keep on hand. Given the current state of the economy, I’m also curious to hear if any of you have had to dip into your emergency fund in recent months to get by.

Note: RSS readers might have to click through to view and participate in the poll.

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Over the weekend I received an e-mail from a reader asking about the effects of closing an old credit card on your credit score. The short answer is that the length of your credit history is an key factor in determining your credit score, so closing old accounts can hurt your credit score.

Anyway, all of this got me to thinking about the ages of our credit card accounts and, more specifically, how long we’ve had our oldest card. As it turns out, our oldest (current) credit card accounts are our Amex Blue Cash (my current top pick as the best cash back reward credit card) and our Chase Freedom cards.

We actually opened both of these accounts back in 1997. The former began its life as an Amex Optima card, whereas the latter was some sort of Chase rewards card. While the Amex card didn’t have any sort of rewards associated with it, they did offer extended warranty protection. I eventually enrolled in the Amex points-based Membership Rewards program, but we never used the card very heavily — just for major transactions where we wanted the additional warranty protection. Most of our charging was done on the Chase card.

Last fall, I finally made the decision to convert our Amex account to a Blue Cash rewards card, and we haven’t looked back since. The Chase account has been through several iterations, most recently having been converted to the Chase Freedom rewards card.

With that as a backdrop, I thought it would be fun to run a poll about the age of your oldest current credit card account. Those Amex and Chase cards of ours has been kicking around for eleven long years — since just after my wife and I got married, and shortly before our oldest son was born.

If you’re not sure how old your accounts are, just whip out your cards. Many of them have a “Member Since” date printed on them. And if, like our Blue Cash card, they don’t have this info printed on them, you can usually login and check it out online.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» What’s Your Favorite Credit Card?
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Time for a quick poll. Given all of the press coverage of the slow economy, I’m curious as to how it’s affecting you guys. As for us, we’re pretty fortunate.

We’re not looking to move, I have a very stable job, we also have a good bit of side income to smooth out any rough patches that might come our way. Moreover, we’re not looking to retire anytime soon, so the stock market turmoil is still a bit abstract. But I know that’s not the case for everyone. So…

That brings us to the question. As always, I encourage you to leave comments in addition to responding to the poll.

Note: If the poll doesn’t work properly in the RSS feed, you’ll have to click through. Sorry.

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The Money Poll on credit limits has now run it’s course, so it’s time to take a look at the results… As of this writing a whopping 36% of you reported having over $50,000 in available credit. Apparently I underestimated you guys when I put together the list of possible responses! On the low end, 6% reported that they don’t use credit, 10% had $5k or less, another 20% fell between $5k-$20k, and the balance (28%) wound up in between $20-$50k. As I suspected, it looks like 0% balance transfer credit card offers have inflated numbers somewhat for at least a few of you.

If you haven’t had a chance to participate in the credit limits poll, please do so.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Credit Card Poll Results
» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
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» Tax Preparation Poll Results
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» Money Poll #26: Credit Limits
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» IKEA Poll Results

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve run a money poll, but while updating Quicken the night another poll idea hit me… I’m curious as to how much you guys have in available credit. I’m talking here about credit card limits, so simply total up the limits and answer the poll below. For what it’s worth, here’s our situation when it comes to personal credit cards:

Citi Driver’s Edge: $14,100
Citi Dividend Platinum: $10,800
Chase PerfectCard: $10,000
American Express: $5,000

So we could theoretically run up a total of $39,900 in credit card bills. We won’t, but we could.

What about you? I suspect there will be some real whoppers out there, especially amongst those of you that are actively playing the 0% balance transfer game. So let’s get to it…

n

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Credit Limits Poll Results
» Money Poll #4: Carrying a Credit Card Balance
» Credit Card Poll Results
» Money Poll #3: Credit Cards
» Credit Card Receipt Poll Results
» Credit Card Balance Poll Results
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» TV Service Poll Results

The Money Poll on tax returns has now run its course, and it looks like we have a bunch of do-it-yourselfers hanging out around here… Over 65% of all respondents are going to be preparing their own tax returns this year, while a bit under 30% will be hiring a pro. In years past, I would’ve fallen in the majority — I actually enjoy running through our taxes as it gives me a lot of insight into our finances. However, given the year that we’ve had, I want a professional opinion just to be sure that I’m doing everything right. Thus, I’m currently in the distinct minority (5%) who are both preparing their own taxes and taking them to a professional for a second opinion. If you have responded yet, the poll is still open. Hop on over an record your vote, or just read the comments.

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» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
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» Bank Account Poll Results
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» IKEA Poll Results
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» TV Service Poll Results

I noted the other day that I was waffling about how to handle our tax prep this year… Do it myself again, or hire a pro? Well, I ended up deciding to split the difference this year, and do it both ways.

Over the weekend, I fired up Turbo Tax and hunkered down to figure things out on my own. With that done, my next job is getting them figured by a pro. While it’s not the most efficient approach, it’s almost certain to be the most instructive. Once I’ve had a chance to make a direct comparison between the two, I’ll have a much better feel for whether or not I should continue tackling our taxes going forward.

As it turns out, this is a particularly tough year tax-wise, as our income was split between two different states, and we had to deal with moving expenses, deductions relating to two different houses, and our first year of substantial self-employment income. Thus, I’d welcome the opportunity to have a second set of eyes look things over.

With that said, lets get to Money Poll #25…

As always, I invite you to share details in the comments section.

Note: If the poll doesn’t work properly in the RSS feed you’ll have to click through. Sorry.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Tax Preparation Poll Results
» Tax Return Poll Results
» Money Poll #6: Tax Preparation
» IKEA Poll Results
» TV Service Poll Results
» Rent vs. Own Poll Results
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» One Year Ago This Week (April 1st – April 7th)

This week’s Money Poll focused on the number of open bank accounts that you have, and the results are pretty interesting… There were 180 responses, and nearly 2/3 of the respondents have between two and four bank accounts. A few ’simpletons’ have just one (5%), and a smattering of banking extremists have more than ten (8%). To see the full results and/or to register your vote, please visit the original post.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
» Rent vs. Own Poll Results
» Tax Preparation Poll Results
» Online Banking Poll Results
» Online Shopping Poll Results
» IKEA Poll Results
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» TV Service Poll Results

As I was updating Quicken over the weekend, I got to thinking about how much more complex our finances are than they used to be. We now have multiple retirement accounts, a non-retirement investment account, and five different bank accounts. Yep, five. Our local checking account, our busines checking account, and three online savings accounts (Emigrant Direct, HSBC Direct, and ING Direct). In reality, this isn’t as bad as it sounds. We really only use one online savings account at a time (currently HSBC Direct) and leave the others open for rate-chasing. Anyway, all of this got me to wondering how typical (or atypical) our situation is, which brings us to Money Poll #24…

As always, I invite you to share details in the comments section.

Note: If the poll doesn’t work properly in the RSS feed you’ll have to click through. Sorry.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Bank Account Poll Results
» Retirement Savings Poll Results
» Money Poll #3: Credit Cards
» Money Poll #4: Carrying a Credit Card Balance
» Credit Card Poll Results
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» IKEA Poll Results
» Money Poll #9: Retirement Savings Rate

Based on the results of my highly scientific poll, I can now predict that the stock market will be either up or down during the next year… We now have over 100 votes, and that Indianapolis Colts hold a 58% to 42% lead over the Chicago Bears.

Just to re-cap the point of this poll, the ‘Super Bowl Indicator’ hold that whenever a team from the old AFL (now the AFC) wins the Super Bowl, the stock market will experience a down year. But when the winner comes from the old NFL (now the NFC), we’ll have a bull market. The problem with this year’s Super Bowl is that the AFC representative (Indianapolis) hails from the old NFL, as does the NFC representative (Chicago). So now we’re left to wonder if this is a win-win or a lose-lose matchup (either way, one team from the old NFL will win and another will lose). Hmmm… Here’s the deal:

I can now predict with confidence that the market will be up or down this year!

If you haven’t had a chance to participate, hop on over to the Super Bowl prediction poll and register your vote. We still have a little more than a week until the big game.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Money Poll #23: Super Bowl Prediction
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» Super Bowl Ad Prices
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I know, I know… The connection between the Super Bowl and personal finance is tenuous at best, but… The NFC and AFC Championship games are in the books, and we now know that it’ll be the Colts vs. the Bears playing for the whole enchilada down in Miami on February 4th. Since this is nominally a ‘Money Poll,’ I’ll just point out the reputed connection between the outcome of the Super Bowl and stock market performance during the following year.

(And yes, there is a poll somewhere down there after all this junk — keep scrolling!)

Briefly, the ‘Super Bowl Indicator‘ holds that whenever a team from the old AFL (now the AFC) wins the Super Bowl, the stock market will experience a down year. But when the winner comes from the old NFL (now the NFC), we’ll experience a bull market. While the Super Bowl Indicator has been historically quite accurate, with a 90% success rate in the first 31 years of the Super Bowl, it’s been considerably less reliable in recent years.

So what does this all mean for this year? In the case of the Chicago Bears, it’s pretty easy. They got their start in the old NFL, and they currently reside in the modern-day NFC. So if they win, legend has it that we’ll experience a bull market. But it’s not so clear in the case of the Indianapolis Colts… The original Colts team actually started out in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1946 as the Miami Seahawks. They moved to Baltimore and adopted their new moniker just a year later, and in 1950 they joined the NFL. They folded after that season, however, and didn’t re-emerge until 1953 when a Baltimore based group took over the remains of the old Dallas Texans. It wasn’t until 1970 that the Colts (along with the Steelers and Browns) switched from the old NFL to the AFC during the NFL/AFL merger.

Hmmm… Even though they currently reside in the AFC, the Colts technically hail from the old NFL. In the context of the Super Bowl Indicator, this means that if the Colts win, we’re due for a bull market. So it’s literally a win-win situation — there should be a bull market regardless of the outcome of the Super Bowl.

Then again, no matter what happens, a team from the old NFL will lose… Does that mean we’re in for a bear market either way? Or maybe current affiliations trump all else in cases such as these. In that case, a Bears victory would signal a coming bull market, whereas a Colts victory would signal a looming bear market. Aye yae yae! Who can keep track?

Anyway, this was all just a long preamble to a poll on who you think will win the Super Bowl this year — the Colts or the Bears? Just in case you’re sitting on the fence, here’s a random bit of trivia for you: The Colts were the first NFL team to have cheerleaders.

As always, feel free to liven things up by leaving a comments.

Note: If the poll doesn’t work properly in the RSS feed you’ll have to click through. Sorry.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Super Bowl (and Stock Market) Prediction Poll Results
» Super Bowl Ad Prices
» From the Archives (January 20th – January 26th)
» The Economics of Super Bowl Ads
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Well, the results of the Money Poll on Current Debt Loads are in… Interestingly, 43% of all respondents reports have no outstanding debt whatsoever. Of course, this ignores mortgages, so it’s not quite as rosy as it sounds. Beyond this, there was a fairly even spread in terms of amounts owed. At the high end, 7% of respondents owe more than $50k, and nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents owe somewhere between $10k and $30k.There were lots of interesting comments in response to this poll, so be sure to check it out. And if you haven’t registered your vote yet, it’s not too late.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Money Poll #22: Current Debt Load
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Okay, I’ve asked in the past about whether or not you guys carry a credit card balance, but I’ve never really touched on the issue of actual debt load. So in this Money Poll, I’d like to ask about your current debt load. Before we get started, here are a few ground rules…

First of all, please don’t include your current credit card balance if you pay it off in full every month. Also, without getting into a debate about ‘good’ debt vs. ‘bad’ debt, I’d like to ask that you exclude: (1) your primary mortgage, and (2) credit card debt resulting from a 0% credit card offer that you took advantage of such that you could bank the proceeds and earn interest. Aside from that, if you owe money for something you should include it.

Of course, if you’d like to include additional information, you’re always welcome to provide a breakdown in the comments. And if your debt isn’t so bad (maybe you don’t even have any), but you had a whopper of a debt sometime in the past, please share that in the comments, as well… Your success story could be just the thing that someone needs to get them through a tough time.

With that said, here we go…

Note: If the poll doesn’t work properly in the RSS feed you’ll have to click through. Sorry.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Current Debt Load Poll Results
» Credit Card Balance Poll Results
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» Top Financial Goals for 2008
» TV Service Poll Results
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Wow. The Gift Card Poll has come to a conclusion and an amazing 77% of all respondents received gift cards for the holidays this year. Wow. And not even 20% of these gift card recipients have spent them out so far… Let’s get cracking, people! Don’t let the marketing geniuses that created the gift card fad pull one over on you! Spend those gift cards before: (1) you lose them, (2) the dormancy/inactivity fees kick in, and/or (3) they expire. Click here for the full poll results, or to register your vote.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Credit Card Poll Results
» Money Poll #21: Gift Cards
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» Credit Card Balance Poll Results
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Gift cards are getting to be a more and more popular gift-giving option, but they’re not without their drawbacks. Dormancy fees, expiration dates, etc. If you’re not careful, that generous gift that you just received from Aunt Martha might just slip away. With the foregoing in mind, I wanted to get a sense for how many people out there got gift cards over the holidays this year. We did, and we’ve spent some of them, but haven’t (yet) touched others. How about you?

Note: If the poll doesn’t work properly in the RSS feed you’ll have to click through. Sorry.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Gift Card Poll Results
» Credit Card Poll Results
» Money Poll #3: Credit Cards
» Money Poll #4: Carrying a Credit Card Balance
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The results of the online Christmas shopping poll are in, and it seems that nearly half of all respondents (47%) have done most or all of their Christmas shopping online this year. In contrast, only a tiny fraction of you (6%) haven’t done any online shopping this year. As one of the online-only shoppers, I’m pleased to report that everything that I ordered has arrived, and is ready to be wrapped. The only potential hiccup was that a CD/MP3 boombox that I ordered for our boys showed up in its original box without any additional outer packaging. Fortunately the kids didn’t see it, and we managed to whisk it away to the attic before they realized what was going on. Click through to see the full results of the poll.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» IKEA Poll Results
» Money Poll #20: Online Shopping
» Tax Preparation Poll Results
» Online Banking Poll Results
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With Christmas almost upon us, I thought it would be interesting to get a feel for how much shopping people have been doing online vs. in the real world… Yes, I realize that we still have a week left, and many people still haven’t finished (started?) their shopping, but still… Speaking for myself, I’ve done virtually everything online. My lovely and talented wife, on the other hand, has done almost everything at brick and mortar stores. So what about you? Please participate in the poll, and feel free to leave a comment expanding on your answer.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Online Shopping Poll Results
» IKEA Poll Results
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The results of the Movie Snack poll are in… 40% of respondents admitted to bringing both snacks and drinks into the theater when they see a movie. An additional 26% bring snacks, but either skip the drinks or buy them at the theater, whereas 8% bring in their drinks but skip the snacks or buy them at the theater. In other words, 3 out of 4 movie patrons walk into the theater with their pockets full of contraband. At the other end of the spectrum, just 18% of respondents either buy everything at the concession stand, or skip snacks and drinks entirely. The balance of people (8%) didn’t fit neatly into any one category, and left comments describing their stance instead. Click through to see the full results.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» How Movie Theaters Make Money
» Money Poll #19: Movie Snacks
» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
» Rent vs. Own Poll Results
» Tax Preparation Poll Results
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» Frugal Confession: We Bring Our Own Candy to the Theater
» Online Shopping Poll Results

My recent revelation that we bring snacks into the movie theater from outside seems to have struck a chord with some, and touched a nerve with others. Given this, I thought that it would be fun to formalize this issue into a poll. And thus I bring you Money Poll #19, which asks “Do you bring snacks/drinks into the movie theater?” As I noted in my previous post on this topic, we bring snacks with us on those rare occasions when we actually go to the theater to see a movie. When it comes to drinks, however, we either go without or we spring for a jumbo Sprite and share it (those caffeine-free drinks are critical when you’re sharing with a young kid!). So how do you do it? Come on, spill the beans…

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Movie Snack Poll Results
» How Movie Theaters Make Money
» Frugal Confession: We Bring Our Own Candy to the Theater
» Books are a Bargain
» IKEA Poll Results
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This week’s Money Poll question was “Do you save your credit card receipts and reconcile them against your statements?” A bit over 100 people responded, and I was interested to learn that the majority of people (52%) handle things just the way I do… More specifically, we don’t really save our receipts and cross-check against our credit card statements. Rather, we simply skim over our statements looking for suspicious activity. Perhaps more interesting, however, was the breakdown between the totally anal and the completely lackadaisical (i.e., people that save/reconcile their receipts vs. those that don’t keep track at all)… Just under 40% fell in the former category, whereas a tiny fraction of respondents (3%) throw caution to the wind and don’t pay attention at all. Rounding out the poll, 5% of respondents reported that they don’t use credit cards. Click here for the full results. Thanks to all who participated. Please check back soon for another Money Poll.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Credit Card Poll Results
» Credit Card Balance Poll Results
» Gift Card Poll Results
» Credit Limits Poll Results
» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
» Rent vs. Own Poll Results
» Tax Preparation Poll Results
» Bank Account Poll Results

If you’ve read this site in the past, then you know that I’m pretty anal when it comes to keeping track of our finances. I use Quicken, and I balance it down to the penny. I’ve never adjusted the balance to fix a discrepancy. If things don’t add up, I find the problem. No matter how long it takes. Thus, I can account for pretty much all the money that’s passed through our household since January 1, 1997.

In spite of the above, I’ve never been one to save credit card receipts and check them against our monthly statements. I know that there are people out there who do this, but I’ve never been able to force myself to do it. That’s not to say that I don’t keep track of charges that come across our credit cards, because I do. But this usually involves just skimming through our bills in search of merchants and/or amounts that I don’t recognize as opposed to formally cross-referencing receipts and charges. In the end, it just isn’t worth the time to me.

And that brings us this week’s poll question.

As an added bonus, I’d like to hear details from those of you that do save your receipts — have you ever found any discrepancies, and have they been big enough to make it worth your time? Please leave a comment and let us know.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Credit Card Receipt Poll Results
» Money Poll #4: Carrying a Credit Card Balance
» Credit Card Balance Poll Results
» Credit Card Poll Results
» Money Poll #26: Credit Limits
» Credit Limits Poll Results
» Gift Card Poll Results
» Money Poll #22: Current Debt Load

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.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Money Poll #17: Shopping at Ikea
» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
» Rent vs. Own Poll Results
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» Bank Account Poll Results
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» TV Service Poll Results

Over the weekend my family made our first trip to an IKEA store. We’ve been in the market for a relatively inexpensive, yet reasonably good table for our dinette, and we haven’t run across anything that we like (either in local stores, in the paper, or on craigslist). We live about an hour from the nearest IKEA, and we’ve heard a lot about it, so we thought that we’d give it a shot.

To make a long story short, it was a pretty interesting place with some decent deals. Perhaps the most interesting thing to me was the number of U-Hauls (and the like) parked in the loading area — quite a few people were making serious hauls.

While didn’t end up finding a table that we liked, we did solve one annoying problem in our house… We don’t have actually have a coat closet, although there is a recessed ‘nook’ near the front door. My wife and I have talked about framing that in and turning it into a closet, but that’s not a high priority right now. Still, we need a convenient place to hang a few coats, stash the kids’ backpacks, etc. Ikea to the rescue! We found a great wall-mounted hat/coat rack with small cubbies, as well as a matching ‘bench’ with six larger cubby holes beneath it. Both pieces are pre-finished and made of solid wood (no particle board), and the total came to a little under $150. We also picked up a couple of throw rugs in sizes that we haven’t been able to find anywhere else.

Anyway, that brings us to the question of the week…

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» IKEA Poll Results
» Online Shopping Poll Results
» Money Poll #20: Online Shopping
» Coupon Poll Results
» TV Service Poll Results
» Tax Return Poll Results
» Rent vs. Own Poll Results
» Tax Preparation Poll Results

Well, the telecommunications spending poll has run its course, and the results are all over the board. At the bottom, we had one person (1%) spending less than $20/month, whereas 17% are spending over $200/month. The most popular reponse (by a hair) was $81-$100/month. I’m guessing that people in that category have a phone (either landline or cell, but not both) plus moderately-priced TV and internet service. As for my family, we fell out in the mid-$150s. Be sure to stop by the telecommunications spending poll, participate if you haven’t had a chance, and check out the full results.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Earning vs. Saving Poll Results
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» Bank Account Poll Results
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» TV Service Poll Results

After a monthlong break, it’s time for another Money Poll. The question of the week this time is: “How much do you spend on telecommunications each month?” When I ask this, I’m talking about your landline, cell phone, internet access, and cable/satellite TV before taxes. As usual, I’ll go first…

Phone: $25.00
Cell Phone: $42.00 (Two phones after 30% in discounts from Sprint PCS)
DSL Connection: $32.95
Dish Network: $55.98 (even though the customer service sucks!)
Total: $155.93

A few comments… First of all, the above values total to more than $1,800 when viewed across a year. That’s quite a bit of money, but we’re okay with that, as we like what we get in return.

Cell phones are far from a necessity, but they’re a convenience that we’re willing to pay for. And while we could probably get away without a landline, that’s not something we’re comfortable dropping at this point — and we’d end up with internet problems if we did, as we’re not willing to drop our broadband connection, and we can’t get cable at our house. Thus, a phone line is something of a necessary evil. As far as Dish Network goes, we could scale back a bit in terms of our service plan (or even cut out TV entirely), but we like the service (if not the customer service) that we’re getting…

Like I said above, we could save a decent amount of money in this area if we wanted to, but it’s not really worth it to us at this point. And with that, I’ll turn it over to you…

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
» Earning vs. Saving Poll Results
» Money Poll #12: Earning vs. Saving
» IKEA Poll Results
» TV Service Poll Results
» Tax Return Poll Results
» Rent vs. Own Poll Results
» Tax Preparation Poll Results

The results of the lawn mowing poll are in, and it seems that readers of this site are primarily do-it-yourselfers when it comes to cutting grass. More specifically, two-thirds (67%) of respondents report cutting their own grass, whereas 17% have someone else do it, and 14% don’t have a lawn. I’m glad to know that we’re in the majority now that we decided to suck it up and buy a lawn tractor. To see the results in full, as well as to check out the comments, be sure to stop by the lawn mowing poll.

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» Cut Costs (and Buy a Plasma TV)
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On the heels of my revelation that we bought a John Deere lawn tractor, I thought that it would be interesting to find out how you guys approach lawn care. I’ve already asked about cutting your grass vs. hiring a lawn service, but I thought I’d formalize it with a poll. Here goes…

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Lawn Mowing Poll Results
» Cut Your Own Grass or Use a Lawn Service?
» Cut Costs (and Buy a Plasma TV)
» Our John Deere Model 125 Lawn Tractor
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I’m a bit late with the results of last week’s poll, but I have a good excuse… We’re in the midst of our move, and have been camped out in a Holiday Inn for the past three days awaiting the arrival of all of our stuff. Thankfully, the movers come today, and things should slowly beginning returning to normal from this point on. Anyway, back to the topic at hand — the rent vs. own poll… The question of the week was “Do you rent or own your home?” As it turns out, just over half of all respondents are homeowners, although most of us that fall in that category still own on one or more mortgages (48% vs. just 3% that own their homes outright). In contrast, 41% of respondents are renters, whereas an additional 6% are sponging off others . For the full results, as well as comments, please visit the Rent vs. Own Poll post.

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» Money Poll #14: Owning vs. Renting

Once again, I have homebuying on the brain… We officially sold our house last Thursday, and will be closing on our new one this Wednesday. With that in mind, I got to wondering about how many of y’all own vs. rent your homes. So, without further ado, I bring you Money Poll #14.

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» Rent vs. Own Poll Results
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Unlucky Money Poll #13 has now run its course, with fully 50% of repondents reporting that they have cable TV of some sort — a bit over half of those had ‘expanded’ cable with the balance subscribing to ‘limited’ cable. Next up was paid satellite service, weighing in at 22% (although the gap will narrow just a tiny bit next week when we move and drop Comcast cable for Dish Network). A plain old antenna was next, capturing 19% of respondents. Finally, 6% reported downloading their TV fix over the internet, whereas 2% don’t watch TV. For the full results, as well as comments, please visit the TV Service Poll post.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
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You’ll have to excuse me, but with two closings coming up within the next week and a half, I have moving on the brain… Now that our internet situation has been settled (and even more favorably than we initially thought), I’m turning my attention to TV. We still can’t get cable on our street (at least for the time being) so we’re exploring other options — after years of cable TV, it’s currenlty looking like we’ll be going with Dish Network.

Anyway, all of this got me to thinking (and wondering) about how everyone else handles their TV service. That bring us to the question of the week: “What sort of TV service do you have?” I’m not personally interested in a debate over whether or not TV rots your brain — it probably does, but I still like it and want to have good reception and a decent selection of channels. But if you’d like to jump on that issue (either pro or con) the comments are open. Of course, they’re also open for pretty much anything else that’s at least vaguely on topic. And with that, I bring you Money Poll #13…

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» TV Service Poll Results
» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
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» Money Poll #15: Lawn Mowing
» Money Poll #16: Telecommunications Spending
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Well, the results of this week’s earning vs. saving poll were among the closest thus far… The question of the week was “What’s more important when it comes to improving your bottom line, earning more or spending less?” After a neck and neck (and neck) race, ’spending less’ finally pulled ahead at the end with 39%. Next up was the view that they’re both equally important (35%), followed by ‘earning more’ (26%). There were also a number of interesting comments, so be sure to stop by and check it out.

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» Retirement Savings Rate Poll Results
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This week I’ve decided to deviate from the “just the facts” nature of past polls, and to take a somewhat more philosophical slant… Without further ado, here’s the question of the week: “What’s more important when it comes to improving your bottom line, earning more or spending less?” Given the nature of this question, I’d love for you to leave a comment adding a bit of context to your answer. And with that, let’s kick off Money Poll #12…

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While I realize that sites such as mine attract a highly non-random sample of web surfers, I was still a bit surprised by the fact that over 90% of all respondents have a broadband connection. More specifically, 55% reported having a cable connection, followed by 35% with DSL, and a handful of people with satellite internet or broadband wireless. With respect to dialup access, just 5% of respondents reported using a 56k modem. Click here to see the full results (or to participate if you haven’t had a chance to do so yet).

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On the heels of yesterday’s revelation that we won’t be able to easily (or inexpensively) get broadband internet access at our new house, I thought it might be interesting to run a poll on internet access. The question of the week is: “What type of internet access do you have at home?” As you probably know from my earlier post, we have broadband. After a long run with dialup, we jumped on the broadband bandwagon nearly four years ago when we signed up for cable internet through Comcast. We then switched to DSL about two years ago. So… How do y’all get your internet fix?

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» Expensive Hotels and Costly Internet Access
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Well, I was pleased to see that I’m not alone in my obsessive compulsive checkbook balancing tendencies… As it turns out, a bit over half of all respondents to my checkbook balancing poll are willing to hunt down even the smallest discrepancy. On the other end of the spectrum, nearly 30% of repondents don’t bother balancing their checkbook. With online banking becoming more and more common (see also my recent online banking poll results), and fewer and fewer checks being written, it seems like checkbook balancing will soon become a thing of the past. That being said, I’m confident that I’ll be among the last to give up the habit. Please be sure to drop by and check out the full results.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Money Poll #10: Checkbook Balancing
» One Year Ago This Week (September 10th – September 16th)
» Obsessive Compulsive Checkbook Balancing
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Another week, another money poll… On the heels of the retirement savings rate poll, this week’s poll focuses on checkbook balancing. This is something that I’ve written about previously, and I’d like to find out how y’all do it. Thus, the question of the week is “Do you balance your checkbook?” As it turns out, I’m a total perfectionist, which translates into being an obsessive-compulsive checkbook balancer. It’s sort of pathetic, but I’ll spend hours tracking down a tiny discrepancy. I have perfectly balanced check registers (as well as that Quicken files to go along with them) dating back at least to January 1st 1997. Actually, our check registers were balanced prior to that, but I didn’t start using Quicken until ‘97. With that said, let’s get to the poll…

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Money Poll #10 (Checkbook Balancing) Results
» One Year Ago This Week (September 10th – September 16th)
» Obsessive Compulsive Checkbook Balancing
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Well, the votes are in, and it looks like most readers retirement savings rate poll are doing a pretty good job of preparing for retirement. In fact, 73% of all respondents are saving 11% or more of their income for retirement, and there’s a handful of really hardcore savers out there, stashing away over 40% of their earnings. Click here to view the full results.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Retirement Savings Poll Results
» Money Poll #9: Retirement Savings Rate
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» Telecommunciations Spending Poll Results
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A few weeks back, I ran a poll on retirement savings accounts which revealed that more than 9 out of 10 respondents are saving for retirement through either an employer-sponsored plan or an IRA of some sort (or both). This week I’m interested in learning even more about my readers’ retirement savings habits, which brings us to the question of the week… “What percentage of your annual income do you save for retirement?” For the purposes of this poll, feel free to include matching funds from your employer. For example, in my case, I get a dollar-for-dollar match of up to 5% of my annual salary (which I take full advantage of) and I’m also kicking in an additional 9% (we bump this up by 1% every year when I get a raise). So that means that we’re saving 14% + 5% match = 19%. With that said, let’s get to the poll…

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» Retirement Savings Poll Results
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» Money Poll #5: Retirement Savings
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The tax refund poll results are in. The question of the week was “Did you end up owing additional federal taxes this year, or did you get a refund?” and three-quartes of all respondents (74% to be exact) received a refund this year. Just keep in mind that a tax refund is little more than an interest free loan to the government. Thus, it might make sense for those of us with large(ish) refunds to adjust our withholding to avoid the same situation next year.

Be sure to check back next week for a brand new poll. And please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any ideas for poll questions that you’d like to see. I can’t promise that I’ll use your suggestion, but I’d love to hear from you.

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In honor of taxes being due today, I thought it would be fun to find out what fraction of you ended up owing additional federal taxes this year vs. those that received (or are at least expecting) a refund. As I’ve noted here previously, we got a sizable refund this year (and it already arrived). So… How about you? Please also feel free to report the amount that you owed/received in the comments section if you’re so inclined.

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The online banking poll results are in. The question of the week was “Do you bank online?” and it seems that the vast majority of respondents (75%) have both online and brick and mortar accounts. A smaller percentage (15%) don’t have a ‘true’ online account, but use their brick and mortar bank’s online banking service. An even smaller percentage (7%) don’t even have a brick and mortar account — rather, they do all their banking online. Finally, a few people (3%) don’t do any sort of banking activities online. Click here for the full results.

Since I’m out of town and in the midst of buying a house (and selling our current house), I’m skipping the poll this week. But be sure and check back next week for the next poll in the series.

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» Money Poll #10 (Checkbook Balancing) Results
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Not quite a year ago, I wrote about the prevalence of online banking amongst Americans. At that time, roughly one-quarter of all American adults banked online, with 60% of internet users between the ages of 28-39 taking part. I was thinking back on these numbers earlier today when I decided that it would be interesting to take a snapshot of how the readers of this site do things. That brings us to Money Poll #7, which is focused on online banking. The question of the week is “Do you bank online?” Regular readers of this site already know my answer — it’s a resounding YES. We have accounts at ING Direct ($25 account opening bonus), HSBC Direct, and Emigrant Direct, and we also rely heavily on our “regular” (i.e., brick & mortar) bank’s online features. So how do you guys do it?

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» Online Banking Poll Results
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The tax preparation poll results are in. The question of the week was “How do you do your taxes?” and it looks like the winner is tax prep software, with 40% of all respondents using TurboTax, TaxCut, and the like. Online tax prep came in a distant second at 25%, followed by independent tax pros (20%) and the old-fashioned pencil and paper approach (10%). Perhaps the most surprising thing to me was the paucity of people that used ‘discount’ tax preparers such as H&R Block (2%). Click here for the full results.

Be sure to check back next week for the next poll in the series. And if you have any ideas for poll questions that you’d like to see, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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» Tax Return Poll Results
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With just three weeks to go until Tax Day, I thought it would be interesting to find out how y’all go about preparing your taxes… Thus, the poll question of the week is “How do you do your taxes?” As usual, I’ll go first. We’ve always done our own taxes, and over the past five or so years we’ve used TurboTax (although the Mac version used to be called MacInTax). While I consider myself to be a fairly tech-savvy guy, I still haven’t taken the plunge with regard to online tax prep… Maybe next year (but probably not). So, how do you guys do it?

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Once again, this week’s poll on retirement savings had a great reponse, with over 220 votes cast thus far. The question of the week was “Do you have any retirement savings accounts?” Fully 92% of respondents reported that they’re saving for retirement through either an employer-sponsored plan, an IRA of some sort, or both. That’s pretty impressive although, as before, I’m convinced that readers of this site are a highly non-random sample (clearly, you’re all above average!). Breaking the numbers down a bit further, 30% have an employer sponsored plan (401k, 403b, etc.) only, 9% have only an IRA, whereas 53% have both types of accounts. Click here for the full results.

Be sure to check back next week for the next poll in the series. And if you have any ideas for poll questions that you’d like to see, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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This week’s Money Poll (the fifth in the series) is about retirement investing… The question of the week is “Do you have any retirement savings accounts?” As I’ve done in the past, I’ll go first. I participate in a 403(b) through work, and my wife and I also both have Roth IRAs. Neither one of us have a Traditional IRA, although my wife did until we converted it into a Roth last year. How about you?

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» Retirement Savings Rate Poll Results
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Another week, another successful poll in the books… The question of the week was “Do you typically carry a credit card balance?” and there were over 215 responses.

To be completely honest, I was a bit surprised by the results — the overwhelming majority of respondents either never carry a balance (61%), or do so only infrequently (17%). Given all that we hear about the debt load of the ‘typical’ American, I was expecting a lot more people to fall into the frequent/always categories. That being said, visitors to this site are most likely a highly non-random sample, and are probably don’t reflect the tendencies of the average American. Once again, you should also check out the comments, as there are some good thoughts there.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to participate in the credit card balance poll, please do so. And be sure to check back next week for the next poll in the series. As always, if you have any ideas for topics that you’d like to see covered, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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» Credit Limits Poll Results
» Money Poll #4: Carrying a Credit Card Balance
» Credit Card Poll Results
» Credit Card Receipt Poll Results
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As a followup to last week’s credit card poll, I thought I’d follow it up with a poll about credit card payment habits. So, without further ado, I bring you Money Poll #4. The question of the week is “Do you typically carry a credit card balance?” And when I ask this, I should note that I’m not talking about carrying a balance on a 0% promo solely to earn interest when you deposit the balance in the bank. Rather, I’m talking about carrying a ‘normal’ balance from one month to the next. As with previous polls, I’ll go first…

In the 15+ years that I’ve had credit cards, I have never (not even once) carried a balance from one month to the next, not even by accident. And neither has my wife. So how does everyone else do it?

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Credit Card Balance Poll Results
» Money Poll #22: Current Debt Load
» Credit Limits Poll Results
» Money Poll #26: Credit Limits
» Credit Card Receipt Poll Results
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The results are in, and this week’s credit card poll had the best response to date… Thus far, over 250 votes have been cast, and over 30 comments have been written! Once again, I want to thank everyone for participating. The question of the week was “How many open credit card accounts do you have?” While a few people fell in the extremes, with some having nary a piece of plastic, and others having twenty or more cards, the majority of respondents had a moderate number of cards. In fact, just under 50% of respondents reported having two to four cards, with about 25% more (including us) have five to seven cards. Click here for the full results.

Be sure to check back next week for the next poll in the series. And if you have any ideas for poll questions that you’d like to see, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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Related Articles at fivecentnickel.com:

» Credit Card Receipt Poll Results
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