Consumerism Commentary

Old Promotion, New Trick: Free $75 With ShareBuilder

2006-07-27T21:13:48-08:00

It's actually $71 after expenses, as you'll see below. ShareBuilder is still running the $50 promotion, but now there's a way to get $75 from opening a new ShareBuilder account, using the same promotion code. Here are the details.

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The Economics of Shea Stadium

2006-07-27T21:10:28-08:00

I was a New York Mets fan in the 1980s, and my girlfriend's family managed to get me back into the team. A. and I attended their game on Sunday against the Houston Astros, the only game of the series my team lost. It was an entertaining game, with a ...

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How To Succeed: Be A Jerk

2006-05-18T20:41:35-08:00

Jeffery Pfeffer, a Stanford professor (say that out loud), often invited his friend Keith Ferrazzi to speak to his MBA students. Here's a little about the frequent guest, who is now an independent consultant:

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Tax Bill Passed By House And Senate

2006-05-17T19:41:15-08:00

On Thursday, the Senate passed a new bill, already passed by the House, that extends reduced tax rates, changes the nature of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), eliminates an extension to higher-education tuition deduction, and eliminates a special deduction for teachers who pay for supplies out of their own pockets.

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The Cost of Raising a Teenager

2006-05-17T19:39:14-08:00

USA Today's reporter, Kathy Chu, talked to some typical parents to get a feel for how much they spend indulging their children. Here's a statistic from the U.S. Department of Agriculture of all places, quoted in the article:

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Latest ShareBuilder Promotion

2006-05-17T19:36:42-08:00

I've had good experiences with Sharebuilder so far. A while ago, I took advantage of their $50 bonus to receive $46 in a free ETF ($50 minus a $4 transaction fee). There is a new promotion code that will provide you with $50 after your first trade. Visit ShareBuilder through ...

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Benefits of Dividends

2006-03-19T22:33:02-08:00

Jeremy Siegel talks about the virtues of owning dividend-paying stocks in a bear market. Those dividends (if reinvested) buy more and more stock as a company's stock price declines. When the stock price rebounds, those extra shares-from-dividends act as "return accelerators," leaving you in a much better position than where ...

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What $300,000 Will Buy You In My Town

2006-03-19T22:31:30-08:00

JLP from AllThingsFinancial unknowingly started a meme observing what $300,000 or so can buy in various locations around the country. Here's what $285,000 will buy you in my town.

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Tracking Restricted Stock in Quicken

2006-03-19T22:29:54-08:00

As I mentioned earlier today, empoloyees in my company have been granted restricted stock, vesting in three years. I decided to do some research to try to determine how to track the value in Quicken, which I use for tracking my personal finances.

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Mattress and Box Spring Purchase: Follow-Up

2006-03-05T18:14:40-08:00

Last year, I purchased a mattress and box spring and soon after I wrote about the entire process. Slate published a commentary about cutting through the marketing gimmicks and making a smart mattress purchase.

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New Free $25 ShareBuilder Bonus

2006-02-11T12:34:17-08:00

ShareBuilder is offering a $25 bonus to new customers through a referral by a current member. If you're interested in trying ShareBuilder out, I'd be willing to be your referrer. You get $25 to use to purchase whatever stock or ETF you like, and in return, I would get five ...

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Changes to Online Job Hunting

2006-02-11T12:27:32-08:00

According to CNN, searching for jobs online is getting more difficult starting last week. There are new federal regulations that put simply create a situation where it benefits employers to have fewer active applicants for any certain position.

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ETFs For Commodities

2006-02-11T12:26:04-08:00

So there's a new Exchange-Traded Fund that tracks commodities. In this case, oil, aluminum, gold, corn and wheat. It seems like a good way for ordinary investors to get into commodities without dealing with futures contracts and such. So, should I invest?

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Another Look at the Roth 401(k)

2006-02-11T12:24:08-08:00

Last week, I wrote a little about the new Roth 401(k) that passed into legislation last year and copanies started offering this year. I cited an article by Jeff Brown from the Philadelphia Inquirer, but I didn't check his math.

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To Speak To An Operator, Press §

2006-01-22T18:14:16-08:00

This is old news to many including me, but I heard a segment on the television news tonight about this helpful tool. It is worth spreading the information for those who haven't heard about it. I can't say that I've been flustered while navigating interactive voice response (IVR) systems. I ...

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Hot Cars and Cheap Cars

2006-01-22T18:12:15-08:00

The beginning of the year must be popular for talking about upgrading your vehicle. Recently, I mentioned the insurance discount for hybrid owners, but there are some additional stories about cars in the news.

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Merrill Lynch Broker Allegedly Steals $320,000

2006-01-22T18:11:07-08:00

A broker from Merrill Lynch allegedly stole more than $320,000 from an elderly woman by forging her signature.

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Supersize My House

2006-01-22T18:09:13-08:00

Slate is presenting an interesting essay slideshow on McMansions, the supersized abodes we love to hate.

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Employment Trends in 2006

2006-01-22T18:07:37-08:00

According to surveys, we should start to see some encouraging trends for those of us working for a living. Richard Castellini from CareerBuilder.com has the story.

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My Retirement Investment Changes

2006-01-22T18:06:19-08:00

Based partly on feedback when I listed my investment holdings, I made some changes to my retirement contributions for 2006.

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Rebate Scams

2006-01-10T08:41:45-08:00

One piece of advice by those who love frugal shopping is to take advantage of rebates whenever possible. Many people followed this advice in the recently passed holiday shopping season. Most of those purchasers will not receive their rebates.

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Mistakes When Selling or Buying a House

2006-01-10T08:40:21-08:00

Are you planning to buy or sell a house in 2006? Personally, I think 2007 or 2008 will be my year. Regardless, Bankrate.com is presenting ten mistakes in real estate to avoid in 2006:

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Carnival of Investing is Up

2006-01-05T22:24:59-08:00

Earlier this week, Consumerism Commentary hosted the third edition of the Carnival of Investing. Here are a few highlights.

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More Stuff From Kiyosaki

2006-01-05T22:19:39-08:00

I saw Yahoo Finance posted a new column from Robert Kiyosaki recently. With an open mind, I decided to read it, thinking perhaps he has something positive to say. I wasn't planning on commenting about the article until I read the third and fourth paragraphs. He's trying so hard to ...

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My Investment Holdings

2006-01-03T18:47:04-08:00

I was wondering how my investments were doing this year, so I whipped up a table. It appears my managed funds have generally outperformed my index fund. Some notes: * My 401(k) was recently rebalanced (it's automatic on a quarterly basis). * The YTD Return is annualized based on either ...

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Monthly Status Update, December 2005

2006-01-02T19:14:48-08:00

What a year! In my personal finances, I�ve mad some advances, but not without letting a few things fall between the cracks. The market turned sour in the last week of the year, and that had too much of an effect on my investment balances. Keep reading for some tables ...

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New Jersey Nest Eggs Incubating

2005-12-20T17:23:22-08:00

A.G. Edwards has compiled results from a survey and has developed a "Nest Egg Index." The statistics measured include participation in retirement plans, debt levels, home ownership -- all major contributors to net worth. I found some items within the results personally interesting: My home state of New Jersey tops ...

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Blogosphere Supernova

2005-12-20T17:21:33-08:00

About a year ago, I gave a shout-out to the other finance blogs on the internet -- there weren't many blogs in this category back then. Take a look at the comments and see the germination of personal finance blogs that have become some of the most popular out there.

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HOWTO Return Unwanted Gifts

2005-12-20T17:20:04-08:00

Here are some tips for returning or getting rid of that tacky gift that has no place in your house, the tasteless joke present that you'd be embarassed for your children to see, or any otherwise unwanted present. Marshall Loeb from MarketWatch suggests these tips:

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Microsoft Will Pay You To Use MSN Search

2005-12-19T11:47:43-08:00

Here's an interesting twist in the Search Wars (turning everyone attention away from the Browser Wars, I suppose): Microsoft will pay individuals [WSJ/free] to use its search engine, sharing the ad revenues with the casual user, most likely through discounts in software packages. The biggest hole in this plan is ...

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Resolutions for 2006

2005-12-19T11:46:36-08:00

In December, I start to reflect on the year that's almost complete and begin looking forward to new new year in which I can use the opportunity to resolve to improve some aspects of my life. Here are my resolutions. (These may change all the way up to December 31 ...

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Taking a Pay Cut Sometimes Pays Off

2005-12-19T07:14:12-08:00

At the moment I'm writing this entry, 85% of respondents to an informal CNN Money survey say they'd be willing to take a pay cut if the situation was right, while the other 15% would not consider such a move.

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Cable Channels a la Carte

2005-12-19T07:13:15-08:00

The FCC now believes that consumers can save money by picking and choosing which cable channels they'd like to receive, with each channel priced separately. Would this new pricing plan change your viewing habits?

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Bite-Sized Nuggets of Advice

2005-12-18T22:52:10-08:00

Business 2.0 has rounded up catchphrases, rules of thumb, and otherwise compressed thoughts by 49 of the most popular leaders in the business world.

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Review of The Number by Lee Eisenberg

2005-12-18T22:50:04-08:00

On Consumerism Commentary, I took an in-depth look at the new book scheduled to be released next month, The Number, by Lee Eisenberg. Here are links to each section of the five-part review: Part 1: Overview Part 2: Determining The Number Part 3: Effect of Increasing Lifespan Part 4: Financial ...

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Ten Percent of Income Over One Hundred Thousand Dollars

2005-12-18T22:45:23-08:00

Will you take this pledge? Can you assert that you will give 10% of your income over $100,000 to charity -- any charity? This is what hundreds of people have done, and I'd imagine many more will, at ten over one hundred.

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Abortion and Crime - Freakonomics Disputed

2005-12-18T22:44:23-08:00

I have not yet read Freakonomics, but I have heard good things about the book from friends. Apparently one chapter within the book discusses the effect of correlation between the legalization of abortion in the 1970s on and the amount of crime in the 1990s.

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Will China Make Americans Better or Worse Off?

2005-12-13T18:48:22-08:00

Due to increasing skills and knowledge worldwide as well as labor costs that are a fraction of costs in the United States, there is some fear that the competition will mean less prosperity for people of my generation and younger. The concern is the younger generation may not be able ...

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Microsoft's Xbox 360 Strategies

2005-12-13T18:47:02-08:00

Just like for the older Xbox, the new Xbox 360 costs more to manufacture than Microsoft charges for the system. The retail price is $399 (which will eventually be cut down, which is the pattern for video game consoles) but the cost for all of the components is $552.27.

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Gift Giving Among a Circle of Friends

2005-12-13T18:45:15-08:00

I have a group of ten or so friends that comprise the "usual crowd." We get together for people's birthdays, movie nights, game nights, that sort of thing. At some point, we're supposed to get together for Christmas/Hanukkah/etc. There seems to be an avoidance of what to do about the ...

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Dinged Rental Cars, Dinged Wallet

2005-12-11T20:30:46-08:00

At the most, I would rent a car once or twice a year when I find myself traveling to remote cities for friends' weddings, for example. Luckilly, this has not yet happened to me. According to the New York Times, it's common for rental car companies to charge mutiple customers ...

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Ben Bernanke's Only Stock

2005-12-11T20:29:13-08:00

Ben Bernanke has only one stock in his portfolio: Altria Group/Philip Morris/Marlboro [MO]. This has been talked about by Jeremy Siegel, CNN Money, Henry Blodget at Slate, and the New York Times. Altria is included in a few of my mutual funds I hold for retirement. The company is also ...

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HOWTO Excessively Spoil Your Kids, Part 2

2005-12-11T20:28:15-08:00

Last year, I wrote about pricey gifts available for children of those with money to burn. Now that we're back in the holiday season, I noticed a new article from CNN Money with the latest updates for the upscale gift shopper.

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Questions to Ask About Gift Cards

2005-12-11T20:26:47-08:00

We've recently explored whether gift cards denote laziness. If you do buy a gift card, be careful. We've been trained to think that gift cards are as good as cash in the store that offers them. Now that we've been trained, the stores like to throw curveballs, catching us off ...

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Are You Pursuing Your Passion?

2005-12-08T22:16:45-08:00

I am struggling to determine my "dream job." I would like to get out of the rut I believe I am in, but I'm not quite sure what to do. How do people determine their dream job? I think most individuals stumble upon it by accident, while others -- possibly ...

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The Cat Is Out Of The Bag

2005-12-08T22:14:48-08:00

Jungle Magazine, a publication focusing on business education and the eminent Master of Business Administration degree, has done a good job writing up Consumerism Commentary for one of the magazine's past issues.

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Don't Stress About Investing

2005-12-08T22:13:17-08:00

Kiplinger's presents four mantras for stress-free investing. If you've been feeling nervous about the stock market lately, perhaps considering these ideas will put you in a relaxed state of mind.

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The Rich Can Teach Us A Thing Or Two

2005-12-08T22:10:49-08:00

Here are five lessons we strugglers can "learn" from millionaires, according to Liz Pulliam Weston at MSN Money. How are the rich different than the "rest of us?" Let me enumerate the ways:

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The World Is Bitchier

2005-12-08T22:09:14-08:00

This article from Wired Magazine takes a look at how technology has changed consumerism over the last sesquicentury. It's a little bit tounge-in-cheek, but it resonates with me and my feelings towards working and living.

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Fewer Women in Hedge Funds

2005-12-08T22:08:02-08:00

Fortune Magazine has an article exploring why we don't see women managing hedge funds. The proportion on women to men is much lower in the hedge fund business than it is in other areas of market finance. People cite many different explanations, including fewer women with MBAs, fewer women willing ...

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