The Money Writers

Unfortunately, this week I was unable to participate in The Carnival of Personal Finance as well as several other money carnivals :(. However, I’d like to still highlight the great articles I did find there! The Carnival of Personal Finance #119 was held at Blunt Money where I found [...]

Halloween has become one of the most profitable seasonal events around.  How can you get a piece of the $6 billion industry this year?
1) Buy Costumes on Clearance after HalloweenPlaces like Spirit Halloween setup shop in empty store fronts in September and jam them full of Halloween merchandise.  The day after Halloween they drop their prices [...]

I received news that I’ll be saving around $10-12 a year and I’m mad about it. It looks like Time Warner is closing down the Business 2.0 magazine. It was my favorite of three magazine that I subscribe to - the other two being Men’s Health and Money. Perhaps I’ll have [...]

If it wasn’t an article on USA Today yesterday, I probably won’t even know there’s a new kind of credit card on the market on September 24, 2007.
RevolutionCard is the name. However, after going through what the new card offers, I found that it’s basically a PIN-based credit card that doesn’t emboss account number and [...]

“To protect your credit card against misuse, remember to sign the back of your card before you start using it” - you will hear that every single time when you call your credit card company to activate a credit card (or a debit card for that matter).
Even the Federal Trade Commission (which, by the [...]

There are tons of articles out there that tell you virtually the same thing about how to sell your car. But a long time ago, when the internet was still incubating, we recall having had to sell our used cars the old-fashioned way — via the newspaper classifieds, for sale signs, word of [...]

According to Google, I’m the second laziest man on the web. I jokingly grabbed the Lazy Man name because I abhor housekeeping. It’s a chore which never ends. I hate the feeling that I’m not making an progress. So it got me thinking, What can I do to eliminate or at [...]

Several decades ago, people built a career-long relationship with their employers.  Now-a-days companies are all about the bottom line and our employer relationships are more like bad high school crushes.  How many of these 20 reasons can you relate to?
Pre-Relationship1) Every person has an image of their ideal job in their head; many people spend [...]

Less than one month ago, I opened an E-Trade Global Trading account and bought 1,000 shares of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) listed on Hong Kong at HK$5.00 a piece. The trading had a very high price that included HK$299 commission and about HK$100 currency exchange fee. To make money from this trade, [...]

As of this morning, the United Auto Workers has launched a nationwide strike for its GM workers for the first time since 1970. In an event that is sure to place even more pressure on the struggling automotive company, even fewer vehicles will be produced until an agreement is reached.
An Example of How Unions [...]

Last week I posted an entry on what it means to be a better investor nowadays after reading an article from Jason Zweig. The main message Mr. Zweig is sending is that investors will gain more by reducing investment costs. For average Joe and Jane, the simplest way to achieve that is using index funds. [...]

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a software engineer living in Silicon Valley. Such an occupation forces you to stay alert with all the technology advantages in the field. Often that includes keeping up with the latest technology gadgets. Financially, it’s quite a curse. Back in my “gotta have it first [...]

It’s not a mistake, it’s a learning experience.

When I first started investing, I didn’t realize I’d be committing so many mistakes. But time and experience in the market does help to hone your instincts as an investor as well as make you get a feel for what risk is acceptable to you. By [...]

I don’t know about you all, but I occasionally get tired of thinking about serious stuff - how to increase my income, how to live frugally, how to shop smartly, whether I am saving enough, whether I am spending too much, blah blah…
And then, there are days when my mind just wouldn’t process anymore [...]

Does open enrollment seem to sneak up on you every year?  Your human resources department sends out an email announcing the enrollment period and before you know you’re scrambling to make your selections on the last day before it closes. 
You’re going to be stuck with these choices for a whole year – why not [...]

If you have entered your home phone number in the national Do Not Call list to block the annoying 7:00 pm marketing calls four years ago, your number will become available to telemarketers next year as the registration is effective for only five years.
It’s time re-register!
A couple of days ago, there was an article on [...]

As our son becomes more mobile, we’re spending more time in our backyard chasing him around.  This has given us the idea of installing a new patio behind our house.  The current plan is to use the Pavestone system to lay a 13 x 16 patio. 
Never having done this before, we headed to Home [...]

One child too many?
This just in. Cheap as Chips has just reported what has got to be the dumbest lawsuit I’ve ever heard: parents sue IVF doctors for helping them birth a set of twins. The problem for these parents was that they only wanted ONE child. Well this hits a major [...]

Silicon Valley Blogger listed a dozen ways to fight the inflation. In the long term, the simplest way is to build a portfolio that generates positive net return after inflation.
Jeremy at Generation X Finance took a look at asset transfer related issues in a series of posts. It’s a very informative discussion on the means [...]

Some interesting reading material for a lazy Sunday.

How to Quit Your Day Job in Six Not So Easy Steps by Ben @ Money Smart Life.
Lazy Man and Jealousy by Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money.
Why Have Americans Become so Overindulgent? by Lynnae @ Being Frugal.
Are You a Better Investor? by Sun @ Sun’s [...]

Yesterday, I mentioned how the Red Sox season was flailing out of control - not unlike Mr. Hyde. Today, it’s time for the opposite, Dr. Jekyll.
I’ve mentioned more than a few times that I’m a Patriots fan, despite all the shenanigans over the last couple of weeks. However, unlike the Red Sox, [...]

I’m doing something a little different this week and splitting the links up in half. There will be some today and more tomorrow. The split of links themselves is random and not related to the Jekyll and Hype situation I’m going to discuss.
I’ve mentioned more than a few times that I’m a [...]

Do you want get started selling on eBay but you’re not sure what to sell? Here’s a simple trick you can use to get some good local product ideas.  What do most eBay sellers that aren’t drop shipping their products have in common?  They have to ship the packages themselves via US Postal mail, UPS, [...]

When something bad happened, it’s not unusual for the party who’s responsible to find a scapegoat to take the blame. The convenient scapegoat in Mattel’s massive toy recalls this summer is obviously the Chinese manufacturers. They are thousands of miles away and can’t defend themselves here in the US amid media frenzy of the [...]

This week I want to introduce you to a few additional RSS feeds that you may be interested in. Since I also write about financial planning over at About.com, you can subscribe to a few additional feeds to get a double dose of finance reading. When I’m not posting here, I’m probably posting there, [...]