101 Best Web Freebies

While they assuredly won't help you grow your nest egg, or retire early (for the most part), there are a lot of useful free goods and services you can score online. BusinessWeek has done some of the leg work for all of us by compiling a list of the best freebies you can get on the web. It's not presented in the most reader friendly manner, but you can check the list out here. The list is almost exclusively software or web based services and I have listed a few samples of the items on the list below:

Operating Systems - Ubuntu
Anti-Virus Software - AVG
Free Phone Calls - Skype
Accounting Software - Mint
Tax Software - TaxAct
Business Cards - VistaPrint
Remodeling Software - Google Sketchup

Read the entire article BusinessWeek.

Holiday Tipping Hell

I don't mean to sound like a miser, but does it seem like the suggested tips that I keep hearing so much about on the news consume a month's salary for the common man? It could be because 1) I'm cheap, 2) I don't make gobs of money, 3) I live in the midwest and not NYC, or a combination of the three... but seriously now.

Let me first say that a very large percentage of the work force is employed in the service sector (me included), and it benefits everyone to reward outstanding service with a token gift over the holidays. Especially since most service employees don't make the most robust salary and tips put food on the table. However, some of the "suggested" tip amounts that I have heard recently are a little rich for my blood. Below are the suggested tips to give various service professionals that recently ran on CNN.

CHILD CARE
Nanny	1 week's to 1 month's pay + small gift from child
Daycare providers	$20-$70/each + small gift from child
Child's teacher	Gift (but check school's policy to see if it's allowed)
Coaches, tutors, music teachers, ballet instructors, etc:	A small gift from the child

HOME/CAR CARE
Housekeeper											1 week's pay or more (depending on length of service)
Trash collectors											$15-$20 each
Parking attendants											$10-$35 each or up to half a month's parking bill for the group if they regularly provide extra service
Gardener											$20-$50. If the gardener's last job before spring is a fall clean up, it's best to tip in the fall

APARTMENT SERVICE
Doormen	$25-$100 each (those who provide the most service for you should get more than those whom you barely see)
Superintendent/custodian	$50-$300 (tip more if there's no doorman and the service has been particularly attentive, but tip less if you tip throughout the year)
Porters/handymen	$10-$50 each
Elevator operators	$15-$40 each

PERSONAL CARE

Hairdresser

Cost of 1 cut (or $20-$100) if you go frequently + small gift

Manicurist

Cost of 1 session (or $10-$50) + small gift

Personal trainer

$25 up to 1 week's pay (or cost of 1 session)

Massage therapist

$50-$100 or cost of 1 session

PET CARE
Dog groomer									Small gift + 1/4 to 1/2 the cost of 1 session
Dog walker/regular dog sitter									Cost of 1-2 week's pay (as with a nanny, a small gift is optional)

DELIVERY SERVICES

U.S. mail carrier

Gifts under $20* (civil servants can't accept gifts exceeding $20.

UPS

Company policy discourages drivers from accepting tips, but they can accept something of nominal value. Tipping guides offer $15 as a guideline, but the amount and choice of gift are up to you.

FedEx

Company policy does not permit cash tips, but a gift worth up to $25 is okay.

Paper carrier

$15-$25 for daily delivery ($5-$15 for weekend delivery)

Does anyone actually tip the FedEx guy or the Dog Groomer? The thought never crossed my mind. Anyone out there that thinks the same way as I do, or am I alone in being cheap?

Low Cost Employee Perks

Looking for a way to reward employees without breaking the bank? I recently came across a (somewhat dated) list of 20 ways to reward employees without breaking the bank on Entrepreneur.com. Below the Entrepreneur's list has been summarized, although I think some of them would end up costing a business more than expected. Would any of them appeal to you as an employee or manager?

1 - Work from home days
2 - Family days
3 - Yoga classes
4 - Community service days
5 - Pizza Fridays
6 - Movie days
7 - Reward a top employee with vacation days
8 - Pass discounts on to employees
9 - Bring your dog to work day
10 - Free car washes
11 - Give employees discounts on what your business does
12 - Swap services with another local business
13 - Games in the break room
14 - Health club discounts
15 - Flex hours
16 - Bonus for referring new hires
17 - Continental breakfasts
18 - Pass on company perks
19 - Free seminars
20 - Holiday family parties

Personally, for employees that have to stay at work until the work is done and can't clock out at 5:00 if it's not. I think that anything that keeps people at work and away from their desk will cause problems no matter how fun or beneficial it is (so #3, 4, 6, and 13 probably wouldn't work for my business). The bring your dog to work probably isn't practical for 99% of the workforce. So, we have food, free stuff, and vacation. All pretty good options.

While most of the working world has switched over to business casual, not everyone has. If you work in a formal setting, a dress down day or two is always a welcome change of pace for most people. I think the swapping services with another business is a very good and cost effective perk as well that every business can stand to benefit from. It exposes other people to your business and lets you offer a reward to your employees for pennies on the dollar.

Do you have any favorites or ones that should be added to the list?

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

Price Drop After You Bought an Item? Get Your Money Back

I know that many stores have policies that if they drop their prices after you make a purchase you can get the difference refunded to you. Unfortunately, these policies are not particularly valuable to me because 1) I don't have the time to keep tabs on prices after I buy something and 2) usually the hassle of running to the store and claiming my refund isn't worth the $5 to me, especially if it's far away. I would guess I'm not the only person who thinks this way - precisely whey stores have this policy - they don't get taken up on it much.

I've been playing around with Price Protectr the last few days and though it might be helpful to others out there. The site supports 72 stores currently and many are the largest online retailers (like Best Buy and Amazon). You simply copy and paste the item URL into a box on the Price Protectr webpage and your email address. If the price drops during the protection period, the site will email you to let you know. Then you can take over and fire off an email or phone call to the retailer to claim your refund.

Anyone else use this service or other similar ones? Now if someone could just figure out something like this for traditional brick and mortar stores I'd be in business.

Dollar Rises On Inflation Concerns

The dollar edged up against the Euro today on stronger than expected Consumer Price Index data. The data showed that there have been higher than expected gains in consumer prices and consumer spending. The Euro fell about 1.5% through this afternoon based on the report today and other economic reports that were released this week. It's likely the major news outlets will shift from "are we headed towards a recession" headlines to "is inflation on the move." Either way it doesn't look like another fed rate cut is too promising.

Read more about the CPI data at Reuters.

Top 20 Entrepreneurial Quotes

The cheap revolution has a nice list of inspirational quotes from entrepreneurs that motivate him. I have listed the top 5 from his list below. I'm partial to #15, myself.

1. I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work - Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist
2. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary - Vidal Sassoon, entrepreneur
3. Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't - Anonymous
4. A good idea is ten percent implementation and hard work, and luck is 90 percent -€“ Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur, investor, author
5. Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory - Mahatma Gandhi, political and spiritual leader
6. Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners - Robert T. Kiyosaki, author, entrepreneur, investor

Do you have any favorites? You can read the whole list over at The Cheap Revolution.

Should You Offer a 401(k) in Your Small Business

Aside from fostering goodwill among your employees, should your small business consider starting a 401(k) plan for employees? Entrepreneur.com has a list of 5 good reasons every small business should offer a 401(k) plan:

1) It's more affordable than you think.

2) It strengthens your business by attracting and retaining high quality employees.

3) Minimal administrative burden.

4) Most small business plans are web-based and have eliminated much of the paperwork.

5) It can help secure your own retirement.

So readers, what do you think? Business owners, are the extra costs justified for small businesses? Employees, is it a deal killer if a small business doesn't have a 401(k) plan?

Holiday Discount Codes Aplenty

Everyday Finance has dozens of holiday discount codes for those of you who may not have purchased everything during black friday / cyber monday. Below is a list of retailers on his list. If you shop at any of the retailers online or at the brick & mortar store it is probably worth a click over to Everyday Finance

Alloy
American Eagle Outfitters
Ann Taylor
Armani Exchange
Banana Republic
Bare Essentials
Barnes & Noble
Bath and Bodyworks
Bed Bath Store
BeBe Sport
Bloomingdales
CCO - Closeout Catalog Outlet
Children's Place
Cloud Veil
Crazy8
Designer Linens Outlet
Disney
Eastbay
GameStop
Golf Smith
Eastern Mountain Sport
Guess
Hasbro
HP
Illuminations
J. Jill
JC Penny
Joann.com
Levis Store
Limited Too
Linen & Things
Liz Claiborne
Macy's Coupon
MetroStyle
New York & Company
Nike
Overstock
Ralph Lauren
Red Envelope
Eestaurant.com
Sharper Image
Snap Fish
Speedo Coupon
Sports Authority
Suds Gear
Timberland
Toys 'r' us
Ulta
Victoria's Secret
Warner Bros Coupon Code
WinkFlash
Yankee Candle
Zales

Best Countries For Business

Which countries are the "best" for business? Time magazine in conjunction with the World Economic Forum have released their list of the top 50 countries for business. The study was based on 113 factors ranging from quality of roads, to the independence of the country's judiciary. Below are the top 50:

1) U.S.
2) Switzerland
3) Denmark
4) Sweden
5) Germany
6) Finland
7) Singapore
8) Japan
9) U.K.
10) Netherlands
11) S. Korea
12) Hong Kong
13) Canada
14) Taiwan
15) Austria
16) Norway
17) Israel
18) France
19) Australia
20) Belgium
21) Malaysia
22) Ireland
23) Iceland
24) New Zealand
25) Luxembourg
26) Chile
27) Estonia
28) Thailand
29) Spain
30) Kuwait
31) Qatar
32) Tunisia
33) Czech Republic
34) China
35) Saudi Arabia
36) Puerto Rico
37) United Arab Emirates
38) Lithuania
39) Slovenia
40) Portugal
41) Slovak Republic
42) Oman
43) Bahrain
44) S. Africa
45) Latvia
46) Italy
47) Hungary
48) India
49) Jordan
50) Barbados

Is anyone surprised by the rankings (or the fact that the Swiss are #2)?

You can read the whole story in the Nov 26, issue of Time.

Charitable Checking Accounts

There is a trend towards people setting up charitable checking accounts in lieu of a charitable foundation to give away money.

The accounts administered by companies like Fidelity and Schwab allow investors it contribute assets and determine when and where to make distributions. Fidelity lowered the minimum investment to open an account to $5,000 - but many are in the $10,000 range, so they are now within reach for the average investor. If you contribute to a small handful of 501(c)(3) organizations the donor-advised checking accounts can offer lower fees and the money in the fund can grow tax free until distributions are made. The fees are generally in the 1% range and you can take a tax discount on contribution to the account the year they are made. Then again you could make the contribution outright and not pay Fidelity 1% to hold it in a special account.

For people looking to stroke their own egos, it's possible to name your CCA something like the "John Smith Charitable Foundation" and make it seem like you have a charitable foundation set up for yourself without the legal costs and paper work.

Read the whole article at about Charitable Checking Accounts at YahooFinance or read the better article on Starting a Charitable Checking Account at MSN.

Which Hybrid is the Most Cost-Effective?

CNN is running a story that compares the best & worst hybrids for your dollar. The rankings shake out like this

#1) Toyota Prius - Cost $22,279, annual fuel cost savings $543.

#2) Chevy Malibu Hybrid - Cost $22,140, annual fuel cost savings $116.

#3) Toyota Camry Hybrid - Cost $25,200, annual fuel cost savings $483.

#4) Ford Escape Hybrid - Cost $25,075, annual fuel cost savings $458.

#5) Saturn Vue Green Line - Cost $24,170, annual fuel cost savings $303.

Read the full story at CNN.

Best Promotional Gifts for Your Company

There are plenty of really crummy give aways that companies spend money on for trade shows, so why not do something different and give something away that is different and that people actually want? Inc. Magazine has a list for you with pictures, prices and where you can get them. Inc.'s list includes company logo'd fishing lures, staplers, gummy worms, and more.

Check out the full list at Inc.com.

Finance Your Vehicle

If you are having difficulty obtaining credit to purchase a car and live in the U.K. you should consider checking out CarFinance.Netcars.Co.Uk. The company offers car financing, car credit, car loans and payment protection for consumers throughout the UK.

It is possible to go to a bank to obtain financing, but while the banks generally offer lower rates - they have more difficult credit requirements and offer credit only to those who have very good credit histories. Finance brokers like Netcars can offer loans to purchase a car at any car dealership at rate comparable to other finance companies.

Here’s how the process works:

1) Whether you know which car you’d like or not you can begin an application with the company for a new or USED vehicle provided the car is under 10 years old and has less than 100,000 miles. You will eventually need to provide the company with mileage details and dealer details.

2) The company will process your application and call you to verify details. A credit check will also be run under your name.

3) Next, you find your car.

4) The company tries to process applications in 24 hours and claims to have an acceptance rate of 90%.

5) The company will email or mail you documents for signing.

6) Drive your car away from the dealership.

While financing companies should not be the only place you look for a loan when purchasing a car. They may offer advantage over a bank or car dealership financing in some cases. Head over to Netcars to learn more about their company and financing options available to you

Free Websites That Help You Save Money

Mint: Think a free stripped down version of Quicken, Money or other personal finance packages delivered via the web. Mint connects to over 3,500 U.S. financial institutions and even suggests where you can get higher rates.

Rent-o-meter: Want to know if your landlord is ripping you off? Are you charging your tennants the market rate? Simply enter your address, monthly rent, number of units, and unit size. The Rent-o-meter gives you a snapshot of whether you are getting a good deal or not.

Buy-side Realty: Megadiscount (no service) broker that will give you back 75% of the commission they receive from the broker. For example if you purchased a $200,000 home and the buyer's agent typically gets 3% of the purchase price, you pocket about $4,500 out of the deal.

Trulia: Demographic information on various areas. Find homes for sale, track trends, local real estate data and more.

Zecco: This online broker has received some mixed reviews and they recently altered their business model from free trades -- to free trades if you maintain a $2,500 account balance. Still pretty good. If you don't want to keep $2,500 in the account then it will cost you $4.50 per trade.

Bankrate: Bankrate aggregates the going rates for mortgages, home loans, credit cards, cd's, and has a lot of other useful financial information too.

Zillow: Real estate valuation service. Check what homes are selling for in a particular area. There have been plenty of people who claim its data is flawed and that it can be far to high or low, but even if imperfect it still has some useful data for people that are home shopping.

How to Beat Black Friday

There are always deals to be had on Black Friday but do you really want to stand in line for hours and fight the crowds for the 4 in stock cheap televisions that Best Buy has in the store? Plus, who has time to sift through a hundred ads to find where the best deals are?

Thankfully, the internet has made this easier too. The following are websites that can help you get your Black Friday shopping done faster and help you sift through to find the best deals out there.

About.com - Has a list of 10 tips for shopping on Black Friday.

DealNews - Has a list that has an even larger list.

TVPredictions - Has a list of 10 rules before buying a HD TV on Black Friday.

GottaDeal.com - Has a frequently updated list of retailers ads and list of on sale items. My personal favorite is the list of online items you can purchase right now and beat the rush.

BlackFriday.info - Has a searchable list of ads online including stores that have some of the items online right now.

Good luck fighting the crowd.

2007-2008 IRA Contribution Limits

Although you have until April to get your retirement contributions figured out, below are the limits for this tax year (2007) and 2008 for those of you thinking ahead. For 2007, individuals under 50 can contribute up to $4,000. This number rises to $5,000 for 2008. If you are over the age of 50 you can make "catch-up" contributions and contribute $5,000 in 2007 and $6,000 in 2008.

It should be noted that these limits apply to individual contributions to Roth IRA's, traditional IRA's and to SEP plans.

Hotel Reservations

If you are making a hotel reservation online this summer you may want to stop at HotelReservations.com and run a price check first. I typically start with the usual suspects (Priceline, Kayak, Travelocity and Expedia), but that might change. I saw an add for Hotel Reservations and had some time to kill today so played around with the site. The site surprised me. Most places claim that they can undercut other vendor's prices, but in practice they are all the same. I did not find this when I used Hotel Reservations. I'll explain more below.

On Hotel Reservations you can choose from hotels, motels, resorts, and vacations rentals among other things. I ran a quick Kayak search and compared the results to HotelReservations.com and the prices were surprisingly worse on Kayak. For purposes of my not so scientific survey, I conducted a search for Milwaukee, WI hotels. Based on the results of my search, it looks like the mid-tier hotels are about $20 cheaper on HotelReservations.com than the travel spider sites. In my particular search I compared two hotels the Ambassador in Milwaukee as well as the Hyatt. The Ambassador was $120 on Hotel Reservations vs $159 on Orbitz. The Hyatt was $150 vs $178 on Expedia.

As an added bonus, right now the company has a deal running where you can get a $30 rebate if you book a two night stay through the site. If you add in the extra $30 savings, the deals begin to look even more attractive. The site also has flights and cars available, but I was not able to compare the pricing on these for this post.

So head over, you might save some cash the next time you make Hotel Reservations and of course it is free. I think I am working the site into my usual rotation of travel searching.

Free Stuff Roundup

Everyone likes free stuff, even if it's not a big ticket item. Below is a list of free items you can get right now online ranging from post-it notes to coffee.

3M is giving away a sampler pack of Post-it Note Cubes, Post-it Flash Cards, Post-it Flags, and Post-it Flag Highlighters until September 30. Direct Link.

For the pet lovers out there, you can get a free bag of IAMS Healthy Naturals dog food, by requesting a rebate coupon here. Direct Link.

Anyone with kids, or possibly looking to relive their college years can score a free hamburger helper microwave single here. Direct Link.

The next time you are shopping at Target, if you stop into Starbucks, you can buy one coffee and get one free by printing the coupon here. Direct Link.




Image by: Eurleif

Credit Where Credit is Due

Many companies have learned that the internet makes it incredibly easy for mistreated customers to air their bad experiences. While it cuts both ways, the maltreated customers tend to make a much larger racket (check out Consumerism Commentary if you don't believe me).

It's time for me to give credit where credit is due and talk about a good customer service experience I had recently. I am a relatively new customer of Liberty Mutual Insurance and so far have only good things to say. This may be common practice, but regardless I'm happy about it.

I lived in a different city for the past three months and have recently transferred back. I purchased a whole year renter's insurance policy on the temporary apartment I was living in because I couldn't find any agencies offering shorter terms (plus it was less than $100). When I called to get a new policy issued this week the agent, who I had never spoke with before, canceled the old policy and credited nearly the entire balance to my new policy. This was great news for me because a) I didn't know this was possible, b) it was done without me even asking for it. I haven't had too many experiences where people take initiative to save a client money.

While it might seem that most of the time services go unappreciated, the little acts don't go overlooked... especially when you are broke and in grad school.

If you are looking for insurance around Chicago or NW Indiana email me and I'll look up her name.

** FYI, some alumni associations give discounts for Liberty Mutual Insurance. For example, you can receive a 5% discount by using the link found here at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay website and the offer is open to anyone -- not just alumni.

Toyota and Honda up Incentives to Move 2007 Models

With the market jittery over just about everything these days, it looks like car manufacturers are operating with some urgency as well. Honda and Toyota trying to clear out room on lots for the 2008 model year cars by throwing greater incentives at customers which is good for you.

Toyota has upped incentives about $480, while Honda has increased incentives about $250. This may sound like pocket change when you are considering a new car, but the incentives have rose from $896 to $1,146 for Honda and $1,009 to $1,492 for Toyota since July of last year.

Reports are also saying that the two companies are pushing leasing incentives that are worth even more money. You may not get the newest model, but lately the improvements year-over-year have been minimal. There is a good chance you will save a bunch of money on your car or at least you will have more leverage than normal.

Read the whole report from Forbes.

Blog Partnership

We are happy to announce that we have entered into a partnership with the Techno Connoisseur blog. It is a new blog, but will have information on the newest tech, gadgets and web services for people who want to be on the cutting edge of all things technology. In the next week or two check it out and hopefully there will be some interesting content there (and more stuff here as well). Also, we will soon be looking to partner with more blog sites to expand our reach and work together. If you are interested send us an email.

Study: U.S. 401(k) Savings Rates Up

Fidelity just released a study that says the median 401(k) balance rose 30% this year. While some of gain is likely attributable to the rather robust (if not chaotic stock market this year, the other 20% or so is a result of people socking more money away. I'm not trying to knock the results here, because any time people take a second look at their investments and put a little more money away for later rather than spending it on a Jamaican vacation I approve. BUT, when you look at the figures cited in the study they are pretty abysmal. Below are the average 401(k) balances for different groups.

• Baby Boomers rose 7 percent to $38,000
• Gen Xers rose 10 percent to $15,000
• Gen Yers rose 21 percent to $2,100

Now here are the average contribution rates.

• Baby Boomers 7.7 percent
• Gen Xers 6.2 percent
  
• Gen Yers 4.6 percent

Hopefully what the statistics don't show is that there is quite a bit of other money that is being invested elsewhere outside the 401(k) plans in vehicles like Roth, or traditional IRA accounts... unfortunately I would guess there is not.

Related Article:
401(k) Flubs 5 to avoid @ CNN

Foreclosure Laws for Dummies

When I was looking for the foreclosure laws in my home state of tonight I stumbled accross Foreclosures.com which has a handy list that summarizes the foreclosure laws and procedure for each state. Might be helpful for any of you out there looking to snap up a property or two that has been a victim of the subprime fallout. You can check out some of my old posts about where the hottest areas for subprime are, the subprime fallout, and why the lenders aren't to blame this time, but people shouldn't feel sorry for them either.

Links:
Foreclosures.com

Why I Hate ATT Wireless / Cingular... Whatever it is Called These Days

I'm a Cingular customer who has now been transferred over to AT&T Wireless with the re-branding effort. While I wasn't a big fan of my treatment as a Cingular customer, I think they have finally lost me as a AT&T Wireless customer too. My Sony Erickson handset has recently started sounding more like a walkie talkie than a cell phone so I headed to the store to look for a new one. Since I'm generally fairly hard on phones and avoid giving the phone company the power to control me for more than a year, I only sign one year contracts with the carriers.

I asked the first sales rep how much a certain phone would be with a 1 year contract. The response, we only do 2 year service plans or you buy the phone without a service contract. I went to another AT&T Wireless store down the street and received the same information except I was told that if I had been a new customer they could give me a 1 year contract. WTF. Nothing like screwing those existing customers (especially the ones looking for a NEW CONTRACT). I later tried Best Buy who told me that I could only do a 2 year service contract because things "just changed". Apparently they couldn't even bring themselves to change the signs that listed the 1 year contract price beneath the 2 year contract price.

With how notoriously crappy wireless service is from certain providers I'm not about to sign a two year agreement. Things have been steadily deteriorating and I drop a call or two every night when talking on my phone. I prefer to walk with my feet and that day is fast approaching.
Verizon, TMobile, Sprint you listening? Need a new customer?

Also see my previous posts on:
Cell Phone Carrier Tips and Tricks
Get $$ For Your Unwanted or Broken Cell Phone

Online Wagering

SPONSORED POST

Over in the UK betting on things is a national past-time. Over in the US we push gambling out of sight and out of mind. While betting is sanctioned in places like horse tracks, indian casinos and vegas, for the majority of Americans there are no casinos or places to gamble close by. Congress repeatedly has tried to crack down on online casinos so Washington can take a cut, but in spite of these efforts they are still alive and well. One of the biggest and best is Bet365 which as the name implies lets people bet on just about anything including NFL, cycling, NBA and even play online poker any time any day. While I haven't used the service, if you are into sports betting it looks like it has a lot to offer. The site also states that it has a wallet system which would be good for bettors because some places place holds on PayPal transfers.

The Super Size Me of Personal Finance

I just read a review of the DVD "Maxed Out" which is apparently being touted as a movie that does what "Super Size Me" did to fast food -- to debt. I'm not sure how exactly one would go about pulling this off, but until I can get a copy from Block Buster (review to follow later) all I have are Amazon reviews to tide me over. The Amazon review seem to be a mixed bag. Overall it seems like the movie is getting a positive review, but reviewers are claiming that it loses focus somewhere along the way by trying to do too much. I imagine it is difficult to make a feel good story about a family living paycheck to paycheck, even if they spent unwisely to get themselves in that position.

Do Investors Have Too Much Information Available?

I was reading an article over at the FT today about the explosion in benchmarks and equity indices now available to the average investor. It is enough to make your head spin or at least check Investopedia much more than can possibly be healthy.

I know there are a lot of people out there who love gobs of information and can't seem to get enough of it. I find myself drifting the other way in many areas. It's not that I don't like being able to quickly find what I'm looking for or don't love the vast quantities of stuff out there on the internet. I think my problem with the push toward information overload is the opposite, I think I'm turned off by the fact people want the 30 second sound byte version of EVERYTHING. The world's economy is simplified by the FTSE, EFT's have exploded, and there are even website that will ruin the endings of movies you have yet to see.

I hate to sound old, but I just don't think there should be a super-shortcut for everything. I'm from a generation that had the internet in High School... I have been known to IM watch TV and eat dinner at the same time... and have seen friends become borderline stalkers due to Facebook... so why do I have a problem with the short cut polarize everything, cut out all the discussion way that media outlets operate these days?

Image Credit: NedRichards

Pay Per Post, is it Ethical?

SPONSORED POST

Has anyone had experience using Pay Per Post? What are your thoughts? I recently signed up for their blog marketing service and am planning to give it a test drive this week. For those of you who haven't heard or seen any of the posts around on blogs the premise is rather simple. Advertisers pay for people to talk up or even simply to link to their blog.

One of the major drivers of the phenomena is the Google algorithm PageRank. Page Rank rewards people who have lots of inbound links and people are gladly willing to pay for those links to get boosted up in the Google rankings. The concept of Pay Per Post at first seemed very counter-intuitive to me and something that I flatly would not try... and may abandon very quickly depending on how this little experiment goes. During my experiment all posts that are sponsored will be clearly marked at the top of the page so as no to fool anyone and won't spin anything positively unless I truly believe it. I am not going to take any opportunities that make me talk up something I don't believe in.
So why am I embarking on the experiment? First off, I'm curious as to what opportunities are offered out there and which advertisers are using Pay Per Post programs to get some Google Love. Second, well I'm a very poor college student and figured that I may be able to pick up a little extra free cash flow in the process of my experiment on top of the full time job.

Anyone else have experience with any of these services? What do you think? Keep the conversation going...

Stock Market Flirts with 14,000

The market finished at a record high today, although not quite at 14,000. It had traded earlier in the day at that level but did not reach that peak before closing. The market is up over 12% for the year and now some analysts are forecasting 15,000 before the end of the year. When you look at the statistics it is a little bit astonishing. The market moved from 13,000 to 14,000 in a mere 57 days. Additionally, the market has closed at a record 57 trading days this year. This is pretty amazing since oil has been marching upwards.

Of course there are still people losing money in the market and hedge fund pros getting paid gobs of money to lose money for their clients. I think now is still a good time to get into the market although I'm not about to steer you astray and offer stock tips.

If you are looking to get in the market you can open up a brokerage account by tomorrow and start investing. Fidelity and Charles Schwab are perennial favorites, while brokerages like TradeKing and OptionsXpress don't have minimum account balances or service fees.

Head over to the library or half.com, there are plenty of good investing books that can school you in what a P/E ratio is and teach you how to tell if a stock is overvalued. Or pick up "The Intelligent Investor," the book that Warren Buffet has said is one of the best. After you get your feet on the ground with the basics you can read up on what the pro's are doing. For those of you who have cable (and can stomach his personality) Jim Cramer's Mad Money is a solid show for beginners run by a guy who made a killing by running a hedge fund.

Finally, you can see what the big institutional investors are doing for free by checking out what are the most active options. Head over to Yahoo!Finance and Market Watch which are tremendous resources to get you started.

Have something to add? Leave a suggestion in the comments or email me.

Image Credit: Helico

Personal Finance Carnival: #3

Here's my not so regular round-up of the best personal finance articles I read from other blogs:

Financial lessons from The Office TV series @ Consumerism Commentary

The Consumerist has a post about four accounts you need and four accounts you don't

My Money Blog has 14 brochures to help you understand home mortgage loans.

The Five Cent Nickel has an article about how credit card bonus chasing effects your credit score.

John Chow blogs about Google bouncing Adsense checks.

Have a suggestion for my next roundup? Drop me an email.

Free Online File Storage With Driveway

I have been swapping a lot of pictures lately with a few of my friends from a recent trip. The problem I have run into is that a picture from a 5 mega pixel camera clocks in at over a 1 meg and my university email account has a rather small cap of attachments. I switched over to my gmail account, but was still capped at about 20 megs. Thus began my search for a better way to transfer the files. I tried a few of the online photo services like flickr but I wanted the pictures transmitted in their full resolution glory.

I read about the DriveWay.com file sharing app and gave it a shot this weekend. It's a start-up that lets you transfer files up to 500 mb (I'm not sure how much cash they will burn through offering a free service with massive bandwith requirements, but maybe they are building on the YouTube business model that is all the rage these days).

The website is really easy to use. You simply click the browse button on the front page and then navigate to the file on your computer you want to upload. You can then type in an email address that the website will "park" the file for. The interface is also really clean and simple. Very web 2.0. My only concern with the service is that there do not seem to be privacy settings available that let you shield the download from the average "Joe" online. This service would work fine if I was sharing some freeware or a stock photo (aside from the obvious copyright concerns), but I'm not so sure I want my family pictures out there for everyone to see so easily.

The Verdict: Worth a bookmark and a try, (remember its free) but won't hit the mainstream until there are stronger privacy controls (or at least they are easier to find). I'm looking forward to following the services as they add features and products.

Free Stock Trades?

When I was checking my email last night I came accross an adsense ad for free stock trades. So what you say, I get about 150 of those a week in my spam folder. Well maybe so, but having some spare time I clicked it anyways and it turns out yet another company is trying to use the web to shake up tired business models.

Zecco promises to give you 10 free trades a day or 40 free trades a month for free. After you reach 40 it charges $3.50 per trade (which is still less than most online brokers). The company also does not charge a minimum account balance or maintenance fees unless you are trading on margin. The company has a matrix that lines its fees up against the competitors here.



The interface doesn't look like anything out of the ordinary or too spectacular, but you can't beat the pricing...

Has anyone tried this yet? I haven't used this service at all, but love the premise. I assume (which is always dangerous) that the way the company can keep costs so low is that it fills both sides of the orders clients place. In other words if at all possible waits to find another Zecco customer that is selling what you're buying before it closes the order. However, this isn't uncommon and every broker tries to do this.

I am guessing though that Zecco trades are less than instantaneous - although I haven't heard anything to the contrary, but for me it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm not a day trader and those of you who are day traders are probably using a more robust service anyways. Plus, if you are buying and selling you should be using the good ol' market limit so you can lock in the prices you want to buy or sell at anyways.

I'd love for this service to succeed or at least cause a little disturbance in the pricing structure of the bigger players. If you have used Zecco email me and let me know what you think.

Link:
Zecco.com

Google Your Way to Saving Money Online

As almost every retailer has an online presence, so come the online coupons. Since I'm cheap all about saving money I typically start by Googling "[store name] coupons" before I make a purchase online. Not exactly rocket science, but then again most of the time saving money is more about luck and being persistent than it is about actually being smart.

Yeah I know, it takes an extra minute or two, but it is well worth it if you can get free shipping, $5 off, or sometimes a bit more. For example, my latest search looking for Target coupon codes let me to find $5 off a purchase of $50 and free shipping.

If you aren't into sifting through Google sites for coupons you can always start at places like CouponChief. Check it out.

Link
Coupon Chief - Online Coupons

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A SPONSORED POST

Poll 1: Results Are In

Charles Schwab has won the Golden Parachute's first online poll for reader's favorite online broker. Fidelity, OptionsXpress, and Other tied for second with 16% each.

Should You Buy Organic Produce

Organic everything is a huge business, especially now that Wal-Mart has jumped on the bandwagon. If you are one of the average American's who don't shop regularly at Whole Paycheck Foods... The question is, are there actual benefits to eating organic and if you can't afford to eat all your produce organic, then where will you get the most bang for your buck?

Money Magazine recently ran an article that explained which fruits and vegetables are the worst offenders as far as pesticides are concerned. Since I currently can't find the magazine, I tracked down a similar list via Google at the Environmental Working Group. I have recreated the list below. The data group has also posted their data set online if you are skeptical about the findings. Although the Money Magazine list wasn't as detailed, from what I remember the results were similar.

The Full List: 43 Fruits & Veggies

RANK	FRUIT OR VEGGIE	SCORE
1 (worst)	Peaches	100 (highest pesticide load)
2	Apples	96
3	Sweet Bell Peppers	86
4	Celery	85
5	Nectarines	84
6	Strawberries	83
7	Cherries	75
8	Lettuce	69
9	Grapes - Imported	68
10	Pears	65
11	Spinach	60
12	Potatoes	58
13	Carrots	57
14	Green Beans	55
15	Hot Peppers	53
16	Cucumbers	52
17	Raspberries	47
18	Plums	46
19	Oranges	46
20	Grapes-Domestic	46
21	Cauliflower	39
22	Tangerine	38
23	Mushrooms	37
24	Cantaloupe	34
25	Lemon	31
26	Honeydew Melon	31
27	Grapefruit	31
28	Winter Squash	31
29	Tomatoes	30
30	Sweet Potatoes	30
31	Watermelon	25
32	Blueberries	24
33	Papaya	21
34	Eggplant	19
35	Broccoli	18
36	Cabbage	17
37	Bananas	16
38	Kiwi	14
39	Asparagus	11
40	Sweet Peas-Frozen	11
41	Mango	9
42	Pineapples	7
43	Sweet Corn-Frozen	2
44	Avocado	1
45 (best)	Onions	1 (lowest pesticide load)

The results suggest what you may have already guessed. The fruits and vegetables with the thinest skins (like peaches, apples and strawberries) are more likely to be contaminated with the most pesticides. Whether you find it helpful or not, it's nice to know how potentially bad the produce you are buying is before your next trip to the store.

Link:
Image Creative Commons R@punsell

Book Review: Never Eat Alone

I just finished the book Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi and recommend it as a good read. The book is predominantly about networking. While it is not everyone's favorite topic, I think the book offers advice that is more valuable than the standard "it's all about who you know." I look at the book as being more motivational as it discusses goal setting and has a number of examples of determined people succeeding against the odds.

Ferrazzi begins the book by talking about his humble beginnings in Pennsylvania and tracks his educational and professional background. He writes about how early on his father recognized the doors that strong connections with powerful people could open up professionally and in education. After college Ferrazzi became the Chief Marketing Officer for Deloitte Consulting and Starwood Hotels before taking a job as CEO of YaYa Media and opening his own consulting firm.

Never Eat Alone attempts to draw distinctions between the smarmy bunch of hyper-networkers who fail to foster deep connections with contacts they meet and the people who can effectively use their network to further their career. The former group of people are painted as the one-sided used car salesman types who come off as fake and hand a business card to anyone who will speak to them. The later group of people are described as poised to grow their network and potential for professional success.

This book begins with a section on goal setting and how to create a three-tiered plan to help you end up where you want to be professionally. As the book goes on, the author fills in details of how he got where he is. While I think the advice is generally point on, I do have some important caveats for people who thinking about reading the book:

First, the author attended Yale and Harvard Business School, two of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. He repeatedly touts the idea of relying on your University alumni network to get new leads and business confidants. Ivy league aside, if you went to a small private university, smaller state university, or no university at all this isn't going to be very helpful for you. In my opinion, the single most valuable skill that an ivy education gives you is not a skill at all -- it's access. Ivy graduates immediately have a shared talking point and network to many of the rich and elite which can help open doors that others simply do not have access to.

Second, some of the tactics the author uses for networking and meeting specific people seem borderline stalker-ish to me. This may be because I'm not a person who is extremely outgoing or a person particularly attracted to sales. I don't see anything wrong googling someone you intend to meet or otherwise doing some research but thinking up elaborate plans to place yourself in positions where you just so happen to bump elbows with someone just to say you have met with them seems a bit much to me.

Third, there is a good portion of the book devoted to name dropping and chest thumping about how impressive Ferrazzi's list of associates and contacts is. If you have a low tolerance for this sort of thing you may want to consider looking elsewhere for reading material.

Caveats aside, Never Eat Alone is a worthwhile read. The book has solid tips, suggestions and strategies for navigating conferences, attracting other connected people, and mastering small talk. Another major plus is the book is a relatively fast read. The material is not very dense or dry and you can get from front to back in a reasonable amount of time.

Let me know if you have any other good business, finance, or other books to read you recommend.

Poll This Week: Which Online Broker is Best?

After reading a few articles recently reviewing which online brokers are best at Forbes and Smart Money, I wanted to know what everyone else out there thought. This week I'm polling everyone out there about which online brokerage they think is the best. I added all of the companies that I could think of off hand to the list. If you come up with another you think I should add, leave me a comment and I'll get it up there ... please choose which one you think is the best.

Links
Image - Flickr Hugovk (creative commons)

When Using a Credit Card is Better Than Debit Cards

If you are traveling this 4th of July week (for those of you in the U.S.), chances you will be taking a credit card, debit card, or a few of both with you. There are a few reasons why traveling, credit cards are superior to debit cards:

1. Temporary Charge Authorization: When you make swipe your card at the pump or make other purchases with your debit card the merchant will make a temporary charge for $1, $20, or even $50. The company then charges your account for the amount in full when the transaction has been completed and cancels the initial transaction. The problem is that the initial transaction can take up to 48 hours to disappear from your account and may end up over drafting your account.
   
   
2. Car Rentals: Simply, many car rental companies won't let you rent a car with a debit card, although I think this is beginning to change.
   
   
3. Disputed Transactions: Some debit cards do not offer the purchase protections that credit cards do that allow you to run to Visa or Mastercard to take care of problems if the merchant won't. However, this fact has been widely publicized and as a result Visa and Mastercard have both make a marketing push to let people know that this is changing.

Links
Which to Use @ MarketWatch
Picture - Flickr Selvin

Hottest and Coldest Real Estate Markets

Now that subprime has left the front pages of the newspapers, media outlets everywhere are looking for the new "it" thing to worry about. With inflation always a concern it seems that housing and inflation are going back and forth as the things that CNBC sound the alarms about most frequently. So what markets are on fire and which are making sellers nervous?

According to Yahoo Finance the best buyer's markets are:

1. Tampa, FL
2. Minneapolis, MN
3. Miami, FL
4. Kansas City, MO
5. Chicago, IL
6. Phoenix, AZ
7. San Diego, CA
8. Milwaukee, WI
9. New York, NY
10. Atlanta, GA

The best seller's markets are:

1. Raleigh, NC
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Austin, TX
4. San Antonio, TX
5. St. Louis, MO
6. Houston, TX
7. Portland, OR
8. Dallas, TX
9. Denver, CO
10. Baltimore, MD

Links
Yahoo! Finance Top Real Estate Markets
Flickr ericskiff

Top 5 Most Expensive Web Addresses

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Entrepreneur Urge

Sure the failure rate for new businesses is high, but that doesn't undermine the fact that starting a business is right up there with owning a home in living the "American Dream." So if you are thinking about striking off on your own what do you do so your dream doesn't go up in flames like so many other start-ups.

Well aside from ironing out a good business plan here are some things you can do to get yourself started.

• Don't Wait Till You Are Sure it Will Work: Nothing is guaranteed so might as well try. But, don't bet the farm unless you are willing to lose what you bet. This is the biggest reason people never start a company based on the great idea they have had for years -- individual risk tolerances and family issues prevent lots of people from ever trying.
  
  
• Weigh Your Risks: What is the worst thing that can happen? Running a business is a ton of work, but it also has a lot of reward and is less risky than many people make it out to be. Many young people will live their corporate lives without job security or a pension, not to mention social security. If your company might cut you free as soon as business slows down, why not take things into your own hands? Of course, you get to enjoy a lot more upside if you succeed and you are the guy in charge too.
  
  
• Pick a Name: It is important that you do some research to see if your business name has been taken. Search through your state's corporate records (most all of them have databases online) to see if your name is already in use. Check to see if your domain is already reserved (GoDaddy.com is great for this, especially if you Google for some coupons first). If your domain is taken you can run a Whois search to see who owns it and when it expires and try to have a firm like GoDaddy grab it if the expiration date is approaching for about $30.
  
  
• Get Some Legal Advice: Now if you are going it alone this might not be a big deal, you can form an L.L.C. for about $100 by filling out some paperwork online and receive a tax identification number. But, if you are going into business with a partner / family member / stranger you really need a buy-sell agreement. The agreement tells how the business will be wound up. If your partner leaves will they control the company even though they are absentee. What if a relationship sours and someone wants out. A buy-sell plans for those events that you can't envision while you are excited about your business prospects (kind of like a will or prenup).
  
  
• Choose Your Business Entity: Depending on your state you likely have plenty of options, whether it is an L.L.C. or L.L.P. that give you the tax advantages of a partnership (pass through taxes), but none of the pesky liability of a partnership.
  
  
• Test the Waters: You can start small. Most businesses start as side pet projects and run that way until the entrepreneur can gain some assurance that his or her idea won't be a total flop. A domain name costs $10 and hosting just a few more dollars per month. If you have an all-in-one printer, laptop, and phone you can replicate most of the modern conveniences that renting an office would provide... now if you want to manufacture widgets this might not apply to you.
  
  
• Get Some Credit For Your Company: Limited liability is great, but not if you have to personally sign for every document. Banks and other lenders won't extend credit to your new start-up without a personal guarantee because they know how risky a new business is. Head over to Staples and open up a business credit account. Buy some pens or something each month for about 6 months and ta da you have a credit history for your new baby.
  

Post your comments and any tips you have for aspiring entrepreneurs and I will incorporate them in the next draft of my musings.


Image: Jon Cage @ Flickr