You’re probably looking for ways to cut that budget right now – we’re in a recession, you’re worried about your job, and the heavy-duty bailouts are for the banks and sick corporations, not for individuals. Dropping that cable TV bill of $50-$100 per month could go a long way toward shoring up your personal finances.
In today’s world, throttling back on cable TV is not as drastic a decision as it used to be. You’ve got all kinds of alternatives:
1. You can slim down your service, dropping some of the extras or premium content, even going down to true basic cable (broadcast TV and a few extras) for under $15/month. If you live in Joe SuperSaver’s Raleigh area, click on this Time Warner site to see a breakdown of options.
2. If you already have a digital TV, try out one of the new inexpensive digital antennas and see how good your reception is. You may be surprised to find out that you can get most of the local stations (and subchannels) with this small investment. Start by researching the antennaweb.org site – it allows you to input your exact location, list all the broadcast stations in your area, and get recommendations for the type of TV antenna you’ll need to pull in these stations. Click at this HDTv Antenna Labs site for customer reviews of a long list of outdoor and indoor antennas that can work for different signal strengths and broadcast patterns.
3. If you have an older analog TV, get one or two of the government coupons and spring for a set-top box. The new stimulus package siphoned fresh money into the coupon program, so the coupon backlog should start to diminish. Then go out and buy a box, or mail-order one of the better boxes not available locally. Joe SuperSaver bought some of the TiVax STB-T8 boxes (highly rated in Consumer Reports), stuck a paperclip in the RF input, and was pleasantly surprised to get several crystal clear local stations after a quick 10 minute setup and scan procedure. Read this Consumer Reports guide for ratings of all the boxes.
4. If you still have a high-speed broadband connection, you can stream most network TV shows right to your PC and watch them whenever you want.
5. Forget TV and get a NetFlix subscription. Their offers consist of several tiers of movie rental service, all of which include streaming of movies to your PC. You can even get a box to view NetFlix streamed movies on your TV.
6. Get real cheap and rent movies from RedBox, that red vending machine that you’ll see in a number of stores. You can rent movies for a dollar a night, satisfying your craving for couch potato time.
7. Forget being a passive watcher and just crack open a good book. Or engage in conversation with your significant other. Finish the housework. Play with the kids or pets. Get to that repair project. Start a hobby. There’s a whole world out there beyond the tube (or flat screen, in today’s world).
Start saving some money now. They say squirreling away your money is not the best thing to do to get us out of the recession, but in this economy, you have to make the right decision for your family and financial situation.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Is There a Safe Investment?
With recent stock market gyrations and our entire financial system on the brink of collapse (at least according to the blaring news headlines), all this turmoil makes you want to hide in a corner somewhere. So what do you do with money you have invested, and where do you put any new money you may have saved?
Conventional market wisdom says that you should not panic. If you avoid the temptation to cash out at what is likely to be a market bottom, you may be richly rewarded sometime in the future. In fact, this may be a great time to add to your investments, particularly those that are sound and which have been beaten down with the rest of the market.
But conventional wisdom makes no sense if you become obsessed with losing your hard-earned savings and experience nightmares of having to stand in line at the soup kitchen to survive after all your cash is gone. If you are a Chicken Little type of person, you want to put your money where it is guaranteed to be safe, and that does not mean under the mattress.
Here are three safe havens for your money:
1. Certificates of Deposit. CD rates are moving up and offer a good compromise between yields and the length of time you need to keep your money locked up. Check out the best one year CD rates at bankrate.com, which also rates the soundness of the lending institution. A recent look at the top shows that GMAC bank is offering a 4.35% APR on a one-year CD (minimum $500), with a four star rating. Yes, GMAC is part of General Motors, which has seen more than its share of instability, but keep in mind that their CDs, along with almost all CDs from issuing banks, are FDIC-insured for up to $250,000. If you like walking into a local bank and live in Joe SuperSaver’s Raleigh area (or in one of many other cities in the eastern U.S.), Fifth Third Bank is also offering a great deal on FDIC-insured CDs at all their branches. You can get a 4.00% APR CD for 9 months and 4.35% APR CD for 13 months, with a minimum deposit of $5000.
2. On-line savings banks. Just like CDs, on-line banks are also FDIC-insured. The rates are a little lower than with CDs, but you can get access to your money with no early withdrawal penalty. Check out the best rates at bankrate.com. Joe SuperSaver has had an account with FNBO Direct (First National Bank of Omaha) for some time; this bank is consistently near the top of the highest yielding accounts in the country (current APR 3.50%, minimum to open $1.00). The bank makes you jump through hoops to complete the on-line application, but it does protect you from possible fraud. You get your money into and out of the account by linking it to your brick-and-mortar bank checking account, with a usual turnaround of around 3 business days to transfer into or out of the bank.
3. Money market mutual funds. These are great vehicles for parking your cash when the fund is part of a family of mutual funds or the cash fund for a brokerage account. Joe SuperSaver wrote about these cash funds in a previous post, and continues to recommend the very safe Fidelity Cash Reserves (FDRXX, 2.55% yield), Vanguard Prime (VMMXX, 2.25%) and PayPal’s money market fund (PAPXX, 2.47%). Because investors in a well-known fund actually lost principal (the normal fund price of $1.00 dropped to $0.97 because of extensive Lehman Bros holdings), the ensuing panic forced the US Treasury to step in. While details have not been worked out as of this writing, a new insurance fund will be created to guarantee money market mutual fund deposits for a period of up to one year. Early indications are that the insurance limit will be greater than $100,000 and that a pass-through fee will be charged for the insurance.
Conventional market wisdom says that you should not panic. If you avoid the temptation to cash out at what is likely to be a market bottom, you may be richly rewarded sometime in the future. In fact, this may be a great time to add to your investments, particularly those that are sound and which have been beaten down with the rest of the market.
But conventional wisdom makes no sense if you become obsessed with losing your hard-earned savings and experience nightmares of having to stand in line at the soup kitchen to survive after all your cash is gone. If you are a Chicken Little type of person, you want to put your money where it is guaranteed to be safe, and that does not mean under the mattress.
Here are three safe havens for your money:
1. Certificates of Deposit. CD rates are moving up and offer a good compromise between yields and the length of time you need to keep your money locked up. Check out the best one year CD rates at bankrate.com, which also rates the soundness of the lending institution. A recent look at the top shows that GMAC bank is offering a 4.35% APR on a one-year CD (minimum $500), with a four star rating. Yes, GMAC is part of General Motors, which has seen more than its share of instability, but keep in mind that their CDs, along with almost all CDs from issuing banks, are FDIC-insured for up to $250,000. If you like walking into a local bank and live in Joe SuperSaver’s Raleigh area (or in one of many other cities in the eastern U.S.), Fifth Third Bank is also offering a great deal on FDIC-insured CDs at all their branches. You can get a 4.00% APR CD for 9 months and 4.35% APR CD for 13 months, with a minimum deposit of $5000.
2. On-line savings banks. Just like CDs, on-line banks are also FDIC-insured. The rates are a little lower than with CDs, but you can get access to your money with no early withdrawal penalty. Check out the best rates at bankrate.com. Joe SuperSaver has had an account with FNBO Direct (First National Bank of Omaha) for some time; this bank is consistently near the top of the highest yielding accounts in the country (current APR 3.50%, minimum to open $1.00). The bank makes you jump through hoops to complete the on-line application, but it does protect you from possible fraud. You get your money into and out of the account by linking it to your brick-and-mortar bank checking account, with a usual turnaround of around 3 business days to transfer into or out of the bank.
3. Money market mutual funds. These are great vehicles for parking your cash when the fund is part of a family of mutual funds or the cash fund for a brokerage account. Joe SuperSaver wrote about these cash funds in a previous post, and continues to recommend the very safe Fidelity Cash Reserves (FDRXX, 2.55% yield), Vanguard Prime (VMMXX, 2.25%) and PayPal’s money market fund (PAPXX, 2.47%). Because investors in a well-known fund actually lost principal (the normal fund price of $1.00 dropped to $0.97 because of extensive Lehman Bros holdings), the ensuing panic forced the US Treasury to step in. While details have not been worked out as of this writing, a new insurance fund will be created to guarantee money market mutual fund deposits for a period of up to one year. Early indications are that the insurance limit will be greater than $100,000 and that a pass-through fee will be charged for the insurance.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Overwhelmed by Credit Card Debt? Try These 10 Tips
Once upon a time, you had a financial emergency and ran short of cash. Those credit cards were just the thing to get past your immediate problem. But it happened again. And again. At first it was hardly noticeable – each $100 that you charged translated to a paltry $2 or $3 per month in additional monthly payments. But over time – perhaps a long period of time – that chump change eventually added up to big bucks. Now it’s a problem that just won’t go away. And you’re trying to figure out what to do about it.
Don’t stick your head in the sand and ignore the dilemma. Likewise, don’t make any rash moves like cleaning out your retirement account just to get those pesky customer service reps off the phone. Assess how bad the problem is, forecast your financial status for the future, and then click on one of Joe SuperSaver’s suggested solutions. The ideas are ordered by ease of implementation – none are a stroll down the beach, but the first couple of suggestions will cause the least amount of disruption in your life, while the last few are downright painful. But do something, because a problem like this is like a disease left untreated – it will be more difficult, will cause more discomfort, and will cost lots of bucks to cure as time goes by.
1. Cut back on fun and pay it down.
2. Sell something you can live without.
3. Bargain with the credit card company.
4. Walk away into a better deal.
5. Tell them about your hardship.
6. Enroll in a debt management plan.
7. Tap into retirement savings or home equity.
8. Stop paying on the cards – for now.
9. Settle your debts at a discount.
10. Give up and declare bankruptcy.
Don’t stick your head in the sand and ignore the dilemma. Likewise, don’t make any rash moves like cleaning out your retirement account just to get those pesky customer service reps off the phone. Assess how bad the problem is, forecast your financial status for the future, and then click on one of Joe SuperSaver’s suggested solutions. The ideas are ordered by ease of implementation – none are a stroll down the beach, but the first couple of suggestions will cause the least amount of disruption in your life, while the last few are downright painful. But do something, because a problem like this is like a disease left untreated – it will be more difficult, will cause more discomfort, and will cost lots of bucks to cure as time goes by.
1. Cut back on fun and pay it down.
2. Sell something you can live without.
3. Bargain with the credit card company.
4. Walk away into a better deal.
5. Tell them about your hardship.
6. Enroll in a debt management plan.
7. Tap into retirement savings or home equity.
8. Stop paying on the cards – for now.
9. Settle your debts at a discount.
10. Give up and declare bankruptcy.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Save on Lodging for Your Next Trip
It’s August – still time to fit in a vacation. But have you nixed that road trip because staying in hotels is just too expensive these days? Read on for some ideas to save money on that lodging. The tips are valid any time of the year that you drive and are looking for a good, inexpensive place to stay.
Joe SuperSaver and his wife recently took a three week vacation to New England, with 19 nights on the road. Total cost for all lodging … $61.79/night, including all taxes.
Did Joe stay at some flea bag place where you need to be armed with Lysol, ammonia, and industrial strength cleaners before you can even set foot in the room? No. Here’s a sample list of places Joe stayed and prices he paid (before taxes):
Comfort Inn
Hershey, PA $48.50
Joe SuperSaver and his wife recently took a three week vacation to New England, with 19 nights on the road. Total cost for all lodging … $61.79/night, including all taxes.
Did Joe stay at some flea bag place where you need to be armed with Lysol, ammonia, and industrial strength cleaners before you can even set foot in the room? No. Here’s a sample list of places Joe stayed and prices he paid (before taxes):
Comfort Inn
Hershey, PA $48.50
Ramada Inn
Hyde Park, NY $77.00 (weekend)
Best Western
Concord, NH $69.99 (weekend)
Comfort Inn
Portland, ME $63.50
Marriott Spring Hill Suites
Peabody, MA $69.00 (weekend)
Quality Inn
Falls River, MA $68.95
So how did he do it? Learn these four secrets.
1) He took advantage of off-season rates.
In New England, most attractions open around Memorial Day, and high season starts around June 15. Joe took his trip between Memorial Day and Father’s Day, enjoyed cool weather, and did not have to deal with crowds. He stayed at a non-chain hotel in the resort town of Bar Harbor, ME for $60.30 per night – with a terrace overlooking the ocean. Peak season rates (July-August) for that same room at that same hotel, according to their website, is $153.00.
2) He used his AAA card wherever it was accepted.
Hotels routinely give a discount for a AAA or AARP card, sometimes as much as 10% of the posted rate. Joe got a sizable AAA discount every place he couldn’t use a coupon. As an aside, Joe also used his AAA card to save about $30.00 on admission charges.
3) He used hotel coupons.
The six hotel prices listed at the top of the blog were all coupon rates. At nearly every interstate Welcome Center in the US, you will find a rack or kiosk loaded with one or more hotel coupon saver guides. These guides include coupons for significant discounts for walk-in customers. The hotels figure that a discounted room still brings in more revenue than an empty room. These coupons are usually first-come, first-served, and you may be turned away if the place fills up for the night. Joe had a pretty high success rate, and found an alternate hotel with coupon nearby when the place was booked. On weekends, the room rate will almost always be higher, or the coupon may not be honored at all. Remember, you cannot make a reservation to guarantee these rooms, but the discounts make it well worth the effort. If you want to plan ahead for an upcoming trip, you can find some of these guides online. Try travelcoupons.com and roomsaver.com for starters.
4) He packed his camping gear as an alternate.
While this may not be practical for everyone, Joe and his wife enjoy tent camping and spent 4 of the 19 nights at campgrounds. National and state parks have the most comfortable surroundings and are the cheapest. Joe was happy to have his camping gear when he pulled into Mystic, CT for a couple of days. He tried his coupons at a couple of places and was told that a convention had booked all the rooms in the area. Rather than spend well over $100.00 per night, Joe found a local campground that was nearly deserted for $27.00/night including all taxes … and hot showers.
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