Black Friday & Small Business Saturday Results

November 30, 2011 by Slug · 2 Comments
Filed under: Hustler

Let me start by saying my wife hates shopping. I, on the other hand, love it. I rarely make purchases, but I actually love the environment and people watching. So what did I do on Black Friday? I stayed up Thursday night until the Black Friday deals hit on Amazon and other websites, and I bought……nothing. I'm not saying I didn't try. There was a certain gift I was looking to buy for my wife. I was ready the second it became available on Amazon, and by the time my click went through, I couldn't even make it onto the 500+ waiting list. So much for high speed DSL!

So, a little disgruntled I sifted through my email offers and found a beautiful gem. ING Direct had some incredible offers available if you paid attention. I ended up opening a savings account for my son and ING Direct paid me $27 into the account. Nice promotion.

And, I decided not to visit any stores.

Results of Black Friday = +$27 in cash

Small Business Saturday was a different story. In case you don't know it, Small business Saturday was designed as a day to support your local business whether they be restaurants, retailers, or some sort of service business. The great thing that American Express did was to offer a $25 statement credit to anyone who signed up and made a purchase at local small business of $25 or more.

So, being the supportive guy that I am (and someone who will never leave $25 in free money on the table), I headed to a local, eligible specialty retailer and splurged! I bought:

1/4 lb 18 month jamon serrano (prosciutto) – $7.54
small Lindt chocolate bar for my son – $.49
house made dark pecan turtles – $2.39
Mo's Milk Bar (45% deep milk chocolate with hickory smoked uncured bacon and alderwood salt) – $8.25
Hachez Cocoa De Maracaibo Classic bar – $5.99
Japanese green tea with jasmine – ~$5

All indulgences! Not a single utilitarian purchase! Yay (low cost) hedonism!

Within minutes of checking out AMEX sent me a confirmatory email that I had made a qualified purchase and would shortly receive the statement credit. Hopefully I'll also get my 2% cashback on the full purchase. With this kind of fun, next year I'll do it with both of my AMEX cards. Maybe I'll even dedicate one to charity.

Results of Small Business Saturday = $25 in free merchandise – $6 in spending = +$19 in merchandise

That pretty much sums up my shopping experiences over the holiday. Somehow, I found a way to come out ahead. How did you do this year?

If you're still looking for gift ideas this year be sure to check out my list of Practical Gifts That Don't Suck.

PS Chocolate+Bacon+Salt = Delicious!

Tags: AMEX, Black Friday, hustle, ING Direct, Small Business Saturday

Chase Freedom: Why the Hell Not?

November 21, 2011 by Slug · 2 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards

You should have the Chase Freedom card, especially as a new applicant since you'll be eligible for the $200 bonus promotion! But, don't just take my word for it. Let's consider this card objectively:

ADVANTAGES

Consistently shows up in my quarterly list of credit cards to maximize the cashback you can be earning from credit cards (Q4 2011 Post).
$200 bonus if you spend $500 in your first 3 months. That's 40% cashback on those purchases! THIS IS A LIMITED TIME OFFER! APPLY NOW
5% cashback on quarterly rotating rewards.
1% cash back on all other purchases.
Better than the Discover® More Card!
- Discover has very low limits on their 5% rewards ($300/qtr). Compare this to Chase Freedom's $1,500 cap.
- Discover runs a tiered system. You actually earn .25% cashback on your first $3,000 of spending each year. It's only at $3,000+ that you get 1% cashback. Chase Freedom has no tiering.
No annual fee to offset your cashback.
5% cashback on charitable giving this quarter! This is your chance to give to your favorite charity, get the tax write-off AND get 5% cashback.

DISADVANTAGES

Remembering to sign up for quarterly rewards is a pain in the ass. However, Chase Freedom does make it easier by sending mailers, text messages, or emails if you request a reminder.
Remembering what the quarterly rewards are is a pain in the ass. Yes, it is. That's why you should favorite my quarterly post on which cards to use! :-)
You can do better than 1%. Specifically you can do 100% better by going for one of two 2% cashback credit cards that I like.
- The Sallie Mae 2% VISA card
- Fidelity Retirement Rewards American Express Card 2%
It's more rare with Chase that you can redeem points for discounted gift cards whereas this is pretty common practice over at Discover.

That about sums it up. I have the card. I use it exclusively for the 5% cashback reward categories, and of course I never carry a balance! APPLY NOW

Tags: Chase Freedom, Discover, promotion, rewards

Amazon 10 Points on Every $1 in Spending

November 15, 2011 by Slug · 2 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards

Hey readers,

This just in from Amazon.com - If you are a carrier of the Amazon VISA, they're offering 10 points for every $1 you spend on all digital downloads. That's a pretty good deal…even better than buying Amazon gift cards at grocery stores with your AMEX Preferred card to get 6% back that I noted in my earlier post, Maximizing What’s in Your Wallet Q4 2011.

This deal is only good through the end of the year so take advantage while you can.

Tags: Amazon VISA, promotion, rewards

Sallie Mae Signature VISA Review

November 7, 2011 by Slug · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Credit Cards

As I've noted in multiple posts, I have been mourning the death of the Schwab Invest First VISA program which officially ended on Oct. 31. It was a great card that I ended up replacing with the Fidelity Retirement Rewards AMEX. It offers 2% that gets moved over into a brokerage account in much the same way the Schwab program worked. I like the card, but I don't love it. The primary limitation is that it's an AMEX which is not accepted at certain stores. The one thing that bugs me the most is my food co-op where I easily spend $1,000/yr. Thus, I'm losing 50% of the rewards I used to get when shopping there since I have to use a 1% cashback card. Blech!

Enter the Sallie Mae Signature VISA card.

It also pays 2% cashback on all purchases, and it's a VISA!
On top of that, right now they're offering 10,000 points if you spend $500 in the first 3 months.
There is no cap on points.
Points don't expire.
You can redeem points for merchandise, travel, paying down a Sallie Mae loan OR as a statement credit. No redemption process is easier than having your bill reduced.

Awesome right? Well, pretty awesome. These are the drawbacks:

You have to wait in order to get the full 2% reward. You can't redeem for the 2% until you've accumulated 25,000 points. Since points don't expire, that's no big deal, but still that's $12,500 in spending.
3% foreign transaction fees. I would not use this card for any foreign travel. Actually the Fidelity Retirement Rewards AMEX is just as bad so I wouldn't use it either. Consider instead the PenFed VISA Platinum Gas / Cash Rewards Card (a sponsor) which has no foreign transaction fees. Reviewed here.

Even with the drawbacks, this is a good card that helps me overcome the AMEX problem. Like the AMEX, it's not a perfect replacement to my Schwab card, but it fills a gap. My new card is in the mail!

APPLY HERE Note: Sallie Mae is not a sponsor. I in no way benefit from your application.

Tags: rewards

Quest for a Million – Net Worth – 11/2011

November 2, 2011 by Slug · 4 Comments
Filed under: Net Worth

The theme for October is definitely: "Give Me Some Booty"

My pirate son scored last night by generating well over 50 pieces of booty from the Pleasantville suburb down the road. Any activity that gets a 5 year old to repeatedly work on learning to add and subtract is good by me. Plus, I get to eat all the chewy stuff that's bad for his teeth!

My wife brought home some booty this month too! She saw her first 2 clients in her brand new office. Woohoo! The return to dual income is so delicious. Hopefully, she can see at least 5 patients this coming month. That would cover the rent and probably wipe away a lot of her worry. She's working diligently to expand her referral base so this seems to be an achievable target.

Sadly, the only additional booty I brought home this month consisted of a few stray coins I found on the ground and about $12 from Google ads. Even worse, my favorite credit card, the Schwab Invest First VISA is officially dead as of Oct. 31. It was a major downer to place it reverently in Drawer of Forgotten Credit Cards.

Happily though, I don't rely on blog income to stay alive. On the real job front, my position post-merger looks to be incredibly secure, and there's even a possibility I could see a retention bonus down the road. I'm not counting on it, but it's nice to dream. Additionally, the markets were very good to us in October (one of the best October's on record) so much of the decline in net worth over the past couple of months was erased by one very good month. Let's take a look at the numbers.

On the asset side, savings continues to fluctuate between $30k and $40k it seems. No matter how hard I try, the liquidity level is not stabilizing to the degree I need it to. This month's decrease can be attributed to the investment in supplies and furniture for my wife's business in addition to a Roth contribution. So, the money going out is going into good things which is always important to keep in mind. Still it's nagging me that I can't seem to get over that $40k hump. The good news is that assets are still up 3% year to date.

On the liabilities side, the story is the same as always. Credit cards are still getting paid off every month, variable rate student loans are still getting paid down aggressively, and 1.08333 mortgage payments are being made. Add it all up and liabilities have fallen 4% this year. Happy, happy, joy, joy.