Archive for December, 2009

« Older Entries

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010! Closing Thoughts…

December 31st, 2009

The Year 2009 was a tough year (but better than 2008!).  I feel very optimistic about 2010!

Since this is my first real year blogging, I initially thought I would link to my favorite article in my archive from this past year.  And secondly, to list some of the most common financial blogs that I read, and how they inspire me.

But I found that as I looked through my archive, I like too many of the post in my archive, so instead I decided to link to the list below based primarily on the ones that had the highest number of comments.  So here they are:

  and now for my own personal favorite:

    Spot Budgeting To Save Money For A Goal Fund 

  and the one I thought was most funny and deserves another look:

    Advice for Spendthrift Friends in Debt

As for the other bloggers that inspired me, here is a short list (I read way to many blogs to list them all)

www.financialsamurai.com - One of the most unique fresh financial blogs out there.  Some times Keiju just make me stop and think” WOW, this is great…  Financial Samurai is now one the first stops when I go and read financial blogs.

www.cashmoneylife.com – I just started reading Patrick’s blog within the last few months.  He’s pretty close to perfect, his tips are great and well written.  This is usually my 2nd stop after sams.

www.seejanegetrich.com – This “close to graduating” law student is another site I stop at regularly.  Jane has a fresh perspective on things and does a great job with her blog.  She’s young and very intelligent.  I feel a kinship with Jane because we started at about the same time in the financial blogsphere.  I look forward to reading her material.  In some ways it’s like I’m watching her move thru life right in front of me.  Great job Jane, keep on doing a rock solid job!

www.frugaldad.com – Jason’s blog is one that I’ve been following for the past few years.  Jason writes in such a way that it almost feels as if he’s sitting beside me and we are just talking.  Great site!

Due to lack of time, I’m just going to list the rest in an abbreviated form, with quick comments:

There are at least 20 to 30 more I could list here easily… but I got to get ready for a New Year’s Eve party.

Have a Happy New Years, and here’s to a great 2010!!!

-MR

UPDATE: I had to change the entry for fabulouslybroke’s line because she changed her format.  And I think for the better!  Good call FB!

6 comments »

Posted in Holiday

Tags:

Beware of Phishers and Their Tricks

December 31st, 2009

I have an early hotmail account, I got it back when I was in school.  I was lucky to get an account that had first letter of my fist name, and my entire last name ex.) DMyLastName@hotmail.com

I thought it was pretty cool at the time, but now I get mail for Dan, Dana, David etc…  So I get about 100 emails of junk a day.

 

 

 

No Phishing allowed!

No Phishing allowed!

 

What I really hate about my account is all the Phishers that try to scam me. Phishers are con artists that send you what looks like a link to a legitimate business (ebay), but instead routes you to a scam site (that even looks like ebay, but isn’t).

Phishing is a technique that the bad guys use to try to steal your credit card numbers.  Often time, older people that aren’t familar with these techniques fall prey to such underhanded methods.  But other people fall for it too.  I have a relative (a recent graduate from a prestigious college) tell me that one day he wasn’t paying attention and click on an ebay link in his email and logged in.  Realizing what he did, he instantly closed the existing browser and opening a new one, then logging into ebay and changed his password (luckily, he didn’t re-enter his credit info when they asked).  Next he call ebay’s customer support just for the extra feeling of security.

So what do you do when you get an email for your bank or ebay informing you a problems has occured or you messed up and need to log in to fix this problem, etc…

  • Delete the email in your inbox.
  • Close all browser windows you have open, including your email account to (if it’s a browser type email client like Hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc)
  • Open a new internet explorer (or foxfire or safari) and google the business that supposedly emailed you.
  • On the site search for the customer support phone number, and call it immediately.
  • If you mistakely provided a credit card number, call your credit card company and have them issue you a new card with a number immediately.
  • If you get an email stating that you’re entitled to, won, inherited, or ect. a multimillionaire sum…   9.9999 times out of 10 don’t believe it. delete these emails too

I know people that when they log onto any web site on the web, they enter their account and then a bogus password just to make sure that the site is legitimate.  If the site lets you log on, even though you provided a bogus password, then it a Phishing site, close your browser!!!

Phishing is a horrible way to lose money.  Don’t fall for it!!!

2 comments »

Posted in Problems

Tags:

Borrowing Laptops From The Library?

December 30th, 2009

I can’t believe that my local Library is actually offering to let people borrow Laptops!  How awesome is that!

Borrowing laptops

Borrowing laptops

Apparently, some local company donated all of their old laptops to the library since they bought new ones.  What a great idea for a company to do!  Merry Christmas local library users!

I won’t be borrowing one myself (plus I’m sure they’ll be in great demand).  But if I were to borrow one, the first thing I would do is go out and buy a cheap jump drive (you can now get a 4G drive for less than $20).  I would use the jump drive for anything I do with the laptop because once you return the laptop to the library, everything you saved goes back too.  If you save to the jump drive, you can save your stuff (I know obvious, right…). 

I wonder if the library will let people check out the laptops for a period greater that 2 weeks?  I would imagine so. 

Where I work, we are constantly upgrading our user computers.  With the latest batch, they are scrapping computers that have CPU that run at speeds of 3G.  So the computers they are throwing out are faster than most of my computers at home.

Computers have truly become commodities!

I have to wonder what else some of the other libraries let people borrow?

1 comment »

Posted in Frugality

Tags:

Cost versus Quality Tools and Games

December 29th, 2009

Too many time, I see people choosing a brand name product for something that can be bought for a lot cheaper price with a non-brand name one.

Eastwing Hammer

Eastwing Hammer

Back when I worked construction (for a year or 2), I remember another young construction worker telling me that I should buy a “Eastwing hammer”.  I never hear of it before, so after work, I went to check it out at a  hardware store.  I was shocked, it was almost twice as much as a traditional looking hammer that was right beside it.

So I picked up theEastWing  hammer, and it felt well-balanced well and had a good solid grip.  I have to admit, I did like it.  But there wasn’t any way that I was going to pay twice as much for a hammer with the “Eastwing” brand name.  And besides , I already had a hammer.  The ironic thing was an older construction worker told me the same thing as the younger contruction worker did, but I noticed when he was hammering that he wasn’ t using a “Eastwing” hammer.  Now this hammer is a good quality hammer and if you do construction work professionally, it might be worth it.  But then again, you have to remember that the older construction worker got along fine without one.

Another example was when I was with a buddy in the game section.  His wife wanted him to buy the board game called  Life, and we found it easily enough, but…  There were 3 of them. one was a cheap knockoff version, another was a traditional board game, and the third was a leather portable case to carry the game around in (price included the game too).  Instantly, he wanted to buy the most expensive version.  I flat out asked him why?  He tried to make excuses like “but it’s portable and has a case”.  I countered with get a rubber band and use it on the box that it came in.  Try as I may, he still decided to go with the fancier one that cost three times as much.  Later he told me I was right and that it wasn’t worth it (but I bet he would do it again :) .

The point is, look and assess if it’s worth it paying 2, 3 or more times what the cheaper but sill highly functional version is selling for

This is a tricky area, because sometimes the more expensive product is the best solution!  But for some thing like a hammer that you won’t uses much, it’s a no brainer…

No comments »

Posted in Costs

Tags:

Christmas Presents That I'm Excited About

December 28th, 2009

I got the usually presents for Christmas… jeans and a few work shirts.

So why did I call the title “Christmas Presents That I’m Excited About“?  Because they are my son’s presents (mostly)!

 

Bonding time with my son

 

 I have a secret confession to make:  I like living Christmas vicariously through my son.  Yep, it’s true!  And this year was awesome for me my son!

We He got the following presents:

  • Mind Flex – This is a game that where you connect an apparatus to you head, then concentrating on a ball, it then rises and falls based on how hard you focus on the ball.  This is an awesome game for kids that love Star Wars.  It’s the closest thing that I’ve see that will let a kid “Use the FORCE“.  I can’t wait to try it soon!
  • Golf Clubs - I’m just an occasional golfer, even my 9 year old son “putts” better than I do.  But he’s been using odds and end golf clubs, with a set designed for his height, he might match my score next year.  We’ll see, it should be great fun (not to mention the bonding experience of such a father and son activity).  I have taken my (then) 5 year old daughter to the driving range already too.
  • Air Hogs Police Helicopter - This is actually my son’s 4th one of these.  The first three were handled a bit to roughly, and they didn’t last long…  My son has better control now…  I’ll get to play with this soon too.
  • Foosball Table- He actually got this 2 years ago, but he was too small to use it.  We have a ping pong table setup downstairs, and he now gives me a run for my money on it, so now I’ll build the Foosball table, and we’ll play that too.  Besides, I might actually invite some old friends over and we’ll play perhaps will play it some too.
  • Star Wars Legos – I won’t play with this (or build it…), but I have to admit, these sets are cool to explore once they are build.  My son loves all of the Star Wars sets.
  • Stephen King’s “Under the Dome” - Okay, this isn’t my son’s… this is my wife’s present.  I’m a big fan of Stephen King.  My wife collects his novels in her own personal library.  Stephen King is one of the authors that I read as a college student, and I’ve been hooked on them ever since.  I won’t get to this for a month or 2, but I’m patient…

Of all the presents, the one that I will enjoy the most is the Golf Clubs.  Actually the time spend golfing with my son this summer is what I’m excited about.  He is just growing so fast, and I want to spend as much quality time with him as possible.  Hopefully, this will be another memory created for him (along with our Christmas Traditions memory), so he can look back and remember those times fondly.

We’re lucky, I found a relatively cheap course to go to.  Then again, we even have fun just going to the driving range.  We conclude our golf outings with a quick trip to a local ice cream place where I buy my son a chocolate peanut butter pie treat (his favorite).

This coming year we’ll try to go every other week, either to the golf range or actually playing golf.

So really the best present that I got this Christmas is the time that I’ll get to spend with my son playing golf next summer.  Of course, I’ll do the same with my daughter once she gets older too…

That is why I’m really excited for next year to come!

2 comments »

Posted in Holiday, Kids

Tags:

pfblogs.org logo

Disclaimer: This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content herein should not be mistaken for professional financial advice. It is highly recommended that you seek advice from a professional for serious financial matters. This site and its author may be compensated for expressing personal opinions regarding featured products and services.