Credit Card Whore Seeks New Lover
Dear Readers, As you all know I'm a credit card deadbeat (i.e. I never carry a balance). I have another admission. I'm also a whore. Not the stick it anything that moves kind of whore mind you. I'm a high class whore. It costs a lot to keep me happy and loyal. But, if you treat me right, I'm all yours. Let's get a few things straight though:
1) I'm the whore so I better be getting paid. If you charge an annual fee, you've got it all backwards. It's a rare occasion where something like that would be acceptable. One exception is my regular customer Mary (short for Marriott). She charges me a fee, but I get to stay at a nice hotel once a year for free which more than offsets the fee. She only really pays well when we do it in a hotel which is fine by me.
2) If you're only paying me for certain tricks, those are the only ones I'm going to perform. My friend Chase is like this (short for Chase Freedom). She only pays me well (5%) when we do our business in a grocery or drugstore. Well then that's the only place she's going to get used by me. And, when she changes her mind next month and wants to do it on an airplane, she better be paying top dollar there too.
3) Consistency breeds loyalty. Penny (short for PenFed Platinum) really only wants to do it at gas stations (5%). It's a little unseemly, but I'm a whore and she's setting the rules so I get paid for each pump, and I have to admit I love it.
4) Whores can fall in love. I'm in love with Chuck (short for Schwab Invest First VISA). He'll do it anywhere – and I mean anywhere, and he always pays reasonably well (2%). He's really great. When we travel abroad I never have to pay extra (no foreign transaction fees). Plus he helps me invest my earnings for free too (no brokerage charges on Schwab ETF purchases). As you can see, I have some good lovers, but I'm always looking for better ones. If you know of a better lover I should be considering, please comment! See how I'm whoring myself out this quarter.
Known Risk, Knowable Risk, and Unknowable Risk
This post may hit on a more philosophical note than usual, but it is a reality that no matter where you go or what you do with yourself or your money there is some kind inherent risk. What’s a guy or gal to do about risk? I think of risk in 3 buckets: Known, Knowable, and Unknowable. Read more
Review of Yodlee vs. Mint
It's been several years since I first reviewed Yodlee, Mint, and the other personal finance aggregator sites. Since that time much has changed. Two big events: Wesabe was shut down and Mint was bought by Intuit. I know Geezeo and Mvelopes are still out there, but in my eyes there are only 2 real players, Mint.com and Yodlee Moneycenter. I've been an active user of both Mint and Yodlee for over 2 years now. In that time I've seen a lot of upgrades. I've also seen a lot of the same problems. So, which one is best? It's more about which one is best for you. It's called "personal" finance for a reason. Note, this article assumes you already know what Mint and Yodlee do. I won't rehash that here – if you need a refresher, jump in the wayback machine. Here's where I land on the key variables that matter to me. Read more
Investment Property: To Partner or Go It Alone
One of the options you have as a property investor is to buy the property by yourself and take all the risk and reward or partner with one or more individuals. Now that I’ve decided I want to focus on ROI with a cashflow neutral approach, I can begin thinking whether there are others I know who hold a similar mindset and are in a position to put the time and money into this endeavor. Additionally, I could consider joining a local real estate investment association. You can actually search for these at the REIA website. There’s a lot to be said for learning from someone who’s done it before, and there’s active groups in my community. Read more
Finding and Investing in Foreclosures?
It’s been about a month since I started searching for my first investment property. At present, there are about 60 real estate listings that meet my basic criteria of being a modestly priced condo or townhouse close to a college campus. That’s a lot of listings already, but I’m sure I can pick them apart because you know I want the BEST deal I can find. The question I had was whether there are any foreclosure listings out there in my area that could be a good fit for me.
So, how do you find a foreclosure listing? You can easily Google “foreclosures+your zipcode”, but you typically end up at listing services that reveal only partial information. You have to either pay to join or give out your personal information to find out more. I’m interested in neither of those things right now. It turns out though there are a couple of other methods that are free and pretty effective. Read more
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