Now is the Time to Buy!

How many times have you heard that crappy slogan before? I think it should be changed to, “Now is the time to buy something well below your means if you can afford it.” Can we at least learn something valuable from our stupidity?

Buy Something Cheap

I haven’t made all of the best financial decisions in the world, but I have made a few good ones for an average guy. This time I looked at my rent cost of $1040/month and decided that now was the time to buy a bank owned home well below market value.

I am not talking about a foreclosure either. I am talking about an REO (real estate owned) home. These have already been through the foreclosure process and the banks are just sitting on them waiting for someone with average credit and a job to make an offer. There are tons of these homes out there and more get listed every day!

A Government Home Program

I purchased my home through the Fannie Mae Homepath program. I was short cash so I pulled a few thousand dollars out of my IRA (you can pull 10K out for a first time home purchase). I put 3% down and Fannie Mae paid 3.5% of the purchase price toward my closing costs.

I would like to say thanks for the deal Uncle Sam, but this doesn’t mean I will stop complaining about my taxes

Is it Cheaper than Renting?

The monthly payment for the 117K town home I purchased including the HOA is $1095. I’m in the 28% tax bracket so I get to write off $8,000 to $9,000 in interest payments at the end of the year bringing my payment down a couple hundred dollars to about $885/month at least for the first few years when interest is most of the payment.

You can find a good mortgage calculator and a rent vs buy comparison tool on Trulia’s website.

I also got a stellar deal. The asking price for the property was $125K and it will be worth that once I fix some of the cosmetic defects. The last person in the home paid about $330K! I can’t believe that the bank even took my offer on the property, but things are pretty ugly out here in Nevada.

Worth the Risk?

Like anything there is some risk involved with this (mainly I am confined to work in one job market and it could stay bad), but you have to have a place to live and there are not too many investments that Uncle Sam will heavily subsidize like this.

I got a low interest, low down payment loan with NO private mortgage insurance (PMI) from the government (via Fannie Mae). They also paid my closing costs and I am also getting a huge tax write off! This is an example of everything wrong and stupid with America and I am proud to take full advantage of it!

Most importantly, it is substantially cheaper than renting a decent place in my area.

We will see how this venture works out, but now is probably a really good the time to buy. You can find out more about the Homepath Program at homepath.com to see what is available in your area.

So, I haven’t posted anything for a few months here. I’ve been pretty busy, but this is a deal that I have to put out there for movie lovers! Movie ticket prices have gotten outrageous in my opinion so I think the theaters must be getting desperate given the state of the economy.

I’m sure if you are online that you have heard of Fandango. If not, it is just an online ticket vendor for movie theaters and you can get some especially good deals for those pricey tickets.

The one downside is that you are only eligible for these offers if you have a Visa Signature Card to be eligible. If you do not have a Visa Signature card then I have a couple of other ideas below.

Visa Signature Offers

There are 2 offers worth checking out. The first deal gives you 20% off $25 in movie tickets when you use your Visa Signature card.

The second deal offers 2 for 1 movie tickets every Friday until the end of July when you use your Visa Signature card.

See the Early Show

Sure, you have to get up before 11AM, but it’s well worth seeing a movie for half price.

Go on Special Days

At the theater down my street, they have half price movies every Tuesday. If you’re looking for a cheap night out it is a great time to go. All you have to do is give your local theater a call or look them up online to find out if you they have something like this.

Yeah Right… 4% APY in 2010?

Did you know there are safe, FDIC insured, high interest checking accounts with 3% and 4% APYs? I didn’t and I didn’t believe the hype either when I first heard about them.

How could I get 4% interest in 2010 when major banks like American Express, Discover, and Ally are only doling out 1.3%?

Well, its pretty simple. Don’t go to a major bank!

Many smaller local banks and credit unions have devised a way to make a profit and unlike the big fellas, share it with you.

I started looking around and found out that I was eligible to join United Federal Credit Union just because I lived near one of their locations. I have thrown out Ally, Discover, and Bank of America all together. I now get a 3% APY on up to $25,000 in my new account.

So, What’s the Catch?

There are a few requirements to get this rate but they are easy to follow.

1. Have a Direct Deposit or make 1 online bill pay per month.
2. Use your visa debit card for 10 swipe and sign (non-debit) transactions per month.
3. Enroll in e-statements.

This is deal I got with United and other banks have similar requirements. The bank makes money off of requirement #2 because they get a cut of the merchant fees that are paid to Visa. Then they share it with you in the form of a high interest rate.

There were no other fees associated with the few accounts I reviewed and you can open most of them with under $100.

Wait! Wait!

“What if I don’t meet a requirement?”

You just won’t get the high rate for that month. Instead you will get something like half a percent interest, but you shouldn’t be charged anything. Just read the fine print before you take the plunge since every bank or credit union is slightly different.

Other Benefits

1. Lower rates on auto loans (you can negotiate better if you secure your own loan)
2. Lower rates on mortgages
3. FDIC or NCUA (federal insurance for credit unions) insurance up to $250,000 for deposits
4. ATM fee rebates (usually $20-$30 per month)

So what do you have to lose?

In my opinion, the answer to that question is nothing! It would be dumb to pass up a rate that is 3x higher than what your are getting in your online “high yield” savings account.

Where to Find One

You may be asking, “Where can I find a high interest checking account like this?”

Well, the 2 easiest places to look are checkingfinder.com and ratebrain.com. I did not believe it at first, but the high interest rates are legit, so check it out!

4 Nights, 40% Off, Free Camcorder

Hotels.com, typically my favorite and cheapest hotel booking site, just sent me a great deal for summer. If you stay 4 nights at certain hotels, you will get 40% off, and they will throw in a Flip Ultra video camcorder worth about $130! Read the rest of this entry »

Save Money On Reading

I do a lot of reading of both books and magazines which can become costly if you are not careful. I know I could get a super deal by going to the library for free, but I like having the stuff and it makes me feel good. In the scope of things reading books and magazines is pretty cheap entertainment.

One area that I found huge price discrepancies was in magazine subscriptions and that is the purpose of this review. A magazine usually costs $4-$7 for a single issues while a subscription to that same magazine might only run $10 to $20! You can basically get 12 issues for the price of 2 or 4 issues and in most cases save about 75%.

Stop Paying 400% Extra!

So, get a subscription if you find yourself buying the same magazines at insane markups! I see people in line at the grocery store with magazines in hand and I have to question their sanity!

I decided to check around online and see what kind of magazine deals were floating around and where I could get magazine subscriptions for under $10.

The largest and most obvious place to look for magazines is none other than Magazines.com. I have used them before, but I am not that happy with their auto-renew policies or their prices.

Magazine Comparison

Magazines.com sells a subscription to Money for $19.99 while Books A Million sells the same subscription for 50% less at only $10.

Books A Million sells a subscription to Psycology Today for $16.97 while Best Deals Magazine sells the same subscription for only $5.95!

These are the same subscriptions for vastly different prices! You can save a lot of money with a little comparison shopping.

Say No to Auto-Renew

I got caught by this one by Magazines.com. I found a $5 coupon and got a subscription to Travel and Leisure for really cheap. A year goes by and all of a sudden my subscription has been renewed at a substantial markup! It was pretty darn sneaky if you ask me.

I could not cancel this online either. I had to call an 800 number, wait on hold, and demand back my money to cancel the renewal. I find this practice unethical, but sometimes it cannot be avoided as individual magazines are starting to do this to (I will probably just cancel them and read something else).

I never reordered my Travel and Leisure subscription because I was so pissed off about this! Had they just sent me a reminder and politely asked me to renew at a reasonable price, I would have had no problem. To bait me with a deal and then price gouge me on an automatic renewal just ruined my experience with Magazines.com.

So where would I go if I were looking for a great magazine under $10 without auto-renew? In no particular order, the following are my top 3 places to look for magazine deals.

1- Amazon.com

I like Amazon because they have a good selection and clearly state weather a subscription is subject to auto-renew. If I could not find a magazine I was looking for at Best Deal Magazines or Books A Million, then I would take a look here.

Their prices tend to run a bit higher, but they are straight forward and do not throw any surprises at you. You can also cancel the auto renewal online from what I read on their website so no hassles with 800 numbers open for only limited hours.

Amazon also features their own special deals from time to time, so it’s worth checking out to see what they have on sale.

2- Best Deal Magazines

Of all the sites I have looked at or tried, ironically I found the best deals at Best Deal Magazines. Their selection is limited, but they have many magazines for less than $10 and over 100 for less than $5! You can check out their Deal of the Day Offer to see what is on sale right now.

I ordered 2 subscriptions from them for less than $6 each. One of them was their weekly special and I only ended up paying $3.95 for Budget Travel which is about $12 on every other magazine website!

Best Deal Magazines DOES NOT auto-renew your subscription at a higher price like some other sites and I have not been able to find better magazine deals anywhere!

3- Books A Million

Books A Million has really good deals on many of their magazine subscriptions like one year of Travel and Leisure for $20 or 2 years for $25. That’s a no-brainer right there.

I’m gonna go ahead and order this from them since I now hate Magazines.com, but I cannot find any details about their auto renewal policy. I will be sure to let you know if any horror stories develop, but if there is auto-renew it will have to be disclosed to me at some point.

I think Books A Million has a really good selection and really good prices so I’m going to give their magazine service a try.

Want the best online savings?

Sure ya do! Who doesn’t?

Every so often, I check out Bankrate.com to see who has the best rates going for savings accounts. I thought I was prudent and that anything with a good rate would be listed there.

The highest rate that they have listed is a 1.40% APY from Sallie Mae. Considering the state of savings accounts, I thought this was really good. My Ally savings account has dropped down to only 1.29% APY over the past few months.

Get 60% More Interest

Well, I found an online savings account that is paying 2.15% APY on balances up to $50,000! That is 60% more interest than my reliable Ally account or anything else listed on the Bankrate website.

West Bank runs the operation, is FDIC insured, and somehow can do this while other banks are hoarding their money and screwing us over. Their stock symbol is WTBA on the NASDAQ if you want to check out their financials.

How It Works

SmartyPig.com is the website to check out and it basically acts like an online piggy bank. Sign up and set a savings goal for something like a house, a wedding, a car, a vacation, etc.

Automatic deductions set by you are taken from your normal checking account and deposited into your Smarty Pig savings. Once you reach enough for your goal there are 3 ways to redeem your savings + interest from your Smarty Pig account.

1- Get a SmartyPig MasterCard® debit card sent to you.

2- Send the money back to your bank.

3- Redeem it for a gift card from a major retailer like Amazon, Travelocity, or Macy’s for up to a 12% cash boost.

It’s good old fashioned frugality and saving at its finest. The extra cash boost you get from the gift cards is a huge deal on top of the 2.15% APY. You can check out a list of participating retailers here. I like to travel so the 10% bonus with a Travelocity looks pretty amazing.

I’m so enthralled with this that I’m opening an account today!

Only $25 to Get Started

All you need to open an account is $25 so anyone can get started with this savings program. There are also no account fees or minimums.

You can set multiple savings goals from $250-$50,000 and calculate how long it will take you to reach them. Family members and friends can even make contributions to help you reach your goals.

Smarty Pig is all about setting goals and saving for them opposed to using instant gratification with a credit card, buying a home you can’t afford, and tanking our economy. You do have to set a goal for the account, but you can cancel or change it anytime and get your money back within about 2 business days.

There are no catches or tricks to get this interest rate, but it is only good on balances under 50K. If you go over 50K the interest rate is only 0.5%, so this is a good place to stash money that you might need in a while.

Fired? Laid off? Did your dreams of making six figures with a history degree fall through? Maybe your sugar daddy won’t buy you a new pair of shoes… Sarcasm aside, we are all vulnerable to these types of setbacks, and we will all survive the dark days of this economy with a little common sense and a tight fist on our wallets. Read the rest of this entry »

Not Feeling Motivated?

Today, I was having some problems with motivation. I just wanted to be lazy, turn to Netflix, and watch TV all day. I decided to do otherwise. I went to the gym, cleaned my house, and started writing this. It was much easier to accomplish something than I thought it would be! Read the rest of this entry »

Are You Maximizing Your Points?

Did you know that you can get extra points and cash back from your credit cards and hotel reward programs with their online shopping malls? I’ve know about this for a while, but I never thought to write about it until my brother mentioned that he just found out about this gem of information. Read the rest of this entry »

Not Really Free Sunglasses

So, I just saw an ad in my Men’s Health Magazine about a “market study” where you can get $200 sunglasses for “free.” You just pay the S&H, which is overpriced, so they do not actually end up being free.

Each pair costs $9-$20 so I said, “What the heck?” I ordered a pair for $19 with an interchangeable amber driving lens and a sunglass case for $6. We’ll see how the quality is when they get here and I will update this post with my review of Red Star World Wear and Vectra Vision. Read the rest of this entry »