1. Contingency Planning: Lost or Stolen Wallet

    Posted by Michael • July 26, 2010 @ 8:35 am
    1 Comment

    We all have our little fears. One of mine, oddly enough, has to do with reaching the end of a discount superstore checkout line:

    I have a cart-full of stuff. I put my stuff on the conveyor belt, and the cashier rings it up. I reach back for my wallet …

    … and find nothing but an empty pocket.

    Ack.

    And right there is where my heart cliff-dives into my stomach.

    Now, to be fair, my inner “fear” of this probably has more to do with me being placed in an awkward situation (needing to pay for stuff at checkout, but having no money to do it with) than it does with the actual loss of my personal filing cabinet (i.e., my wallet).

    But in reality, it’s that second condition that would cause the larger turmoil. And dramatically so.

    To date, I have never lost my wallet. But it occurs to me now that doing so would precipitate a huge mess in my life. I mean, I’ve never gone through any other guy’s wallets, but I suspect that I keep a lot of stuff in mine, relatively speaking.

    Careful consideration suggests that having all that “stuff” fall into the wrong hands could prove to be really, really nasty. And taking a few actions now, plus having some sort of contingency plan in place should my fears be realized, is probably a really good idea.

    Perhaps both of us, Dear Reader, should practice some wallet “preventative maintenance.”

    Know “What’s In Your Wallet”

    I will be deadly honest here: I have not inventoried my wallet in years.

    If that thing disappeared tomorrow, would I know everything that it held?

    Would I know what accounts were compromised?

    Would I know what banks and institutions to call to notify and/or close those accounts?

    Embarassing as it is to say, I certainly wouldn’t have those answers immediately. Sure, I could garner a lot of the required info from my Quicken 2010 Deluxe file, but that would take time. And it wouldn’t be exhaustive. For stuff like insurance cards, I’d need to dig through our filing cabinets as well. Which means more time. And more opportunity for bad stuff to happen with my information.

    So obviously, knowing what’s in your wallet is key. With that in mind, it’s time to see what I can do to, uh, mitigate the potential damage.

    Minimize Wallet Contents

    The way I figure, the best way to keep your wallet from becoming some identity thief’s Jackpot of the Month is to make sure that said wallet is (1) as empty as possible, or (2) as full of useless crap as possible.

    (When Mr. Thief scours all the hidden folds of your wallet, hoping to score a Benjamin or two, and finds only a couple of Arby’s receipts from 1997 … well, it’s fun to imagine the look on his face.)

    In this vein, I’ve read that some guys don’t even carry their driver’s licenses in their wallets. Instead, they elect to keep it in their vehicle … say, in a glove-box wallet, or in a console compartment. While I understand the goal — don’t let the thief get your address, etc. — the side-effects seem way inconvenient to me. And what if your car gets stolen? According to at least one source (though a flimsy one), that’s way more likely to happen than having your wallet pilfered.

    Anyway, considering your wallet’s contents, odds are that your name will be in there on SOMETHING. But if you’re good with keeping your driver license elsewhere, you might as well yank out anything else that could tip off a thief to your address, birthdate, workplace (think business cards), and other vitals. Why make identity theft any easier than it already is?

    Don’t Be An Idiot

    Yes, these should go without saying. But a little reinforcement can’t hurt.

    Don’t carry your Social Security card in your wallet.

    Don’t keep your Social Security number anywhere in your wallet.

    Don’t keep ATM pin numbers in your wallet.

    Do Consider Human Nature

    If you think human nature matters, regardless of situation, then you might want to keep baby pics in your wallet, though. If you do, display them prominently. There’s no charge for playing to someone’s sympathies!

    Think It Over: Debit vs. Credit

    Remember: In the event of a wallet or purse mishap, debit cards will give Mr. Thief direct access to your bank account. Credit cards will not.

    “Reward checking” programs that require some minimum number of debit-card purchases each month can bring pretty fat interest rates to your account. But there is a cost here that many people don’t consider: You’re making your debit-card info that much more available to folks who would like to do bad things with it.

    (Lisa and I have had our credit-card accounts compromised at least once, and it was practically a non-event. We’ve never had our debit-card numbers fall into the wrong hands, thankfully, but we’ve heard from folks who have. And it wasn’t pretty.)

    Inventory Those Wallet Contents

    Now that we’ve cleaned out (hopefully) a bunch of peripheral stuff from our wallets, it’s time to do a bit of Contingency Plan record-keeping.

    • Scan, photograph, or photocopy fronts/backs of cards.
    • Keep a list of website URLs / contact phone numbers somewhere. (My personal choice is a filing cabinet, using a folder labeled WALLET INFO and the current date.)
    • Keep photographs/scans/copies in safe place. (The above-mentioned filing cabinet seems good enough to me.)

    After all this, we’ve hopefully done enough thinking ahead to mitigate some of the hassle associated with a lost wallet … should it ever occur!

    Filed In: Banking, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Planning Ahead

    Permalink: Contingency Planning: Lost or Stolen Wallet

    1 Comment


     

     

  2. Paying the Minimum … Forever?

    Posted by Michael • July 12, 2010 @ 10:19 am
    9 Comments

    Digging through my piles of personal-finance books this weekend, I came across the very first money book I ever purchased: Carol Keeffe’s How to Get What You Want in Life with the Money You Already Have (1995 edition).

    It really is quite amazing how much different the advice can be from one author to the next. On page 111, Ms. Keefe summarizes why she advocates paying only the minimums on installment bills:

    Why should anyone pay only the minimum payment due on his or her installment bills instead of getting them paid off as fast as possible and eliminating those high finance charges? Two main reasons. One is to diffuse the emotional grip bils have over us by putting them in last place, making them unimportant. The other is to free up money so we can begin to pay ourselves. Paying the minimum on the bills is a tremendous boost in moving us from the credit card trap to the freedom of choice that comes with having money.

    What? Diffuse the emotional grip bills have over us? That sounds precisely like the kind of psychobabble crap you’d get from an author who’s made her paycheck by telling people what they want to hear. (It’s what the guys at Chase and Citibank want their customers to hear, for sure.)

    I didn’t think much, one way or another, of this advice back when I first read it. It didn’t make much of an impact on me, apparently, because not long thereafter I was back at the bookstore, buying copies of other (better) money books. (If memory serves, Mary Hunt’s Debt-Proof Living and Joe Dominguez’ Your Money or Your Life were the next guideposts on my debt-free journey. Both were, and are, fantastic.)

    What Keeffe advocates in her book, to be fair, is that one should pay the minimums on all bills until s/he has six months’ salary tucked away in savings. At that point, s/he won’t need credit cards any longer for month-to-month living and emergencies — making it easier to get rid of the things once and for all.

    FACT: When you take your focus off the bills and pay the minimum, the installment bills do go away.

    FACT: You can do it.

    FACT: Paying the minimum will make you want to quit using the cards and start living in the present.

    FACT: By choosing to pay the minimum on your credit card bills, you are taking action that says, “My goals and I are more important than the bills.” You have taken charge.

    I’m sorry, but Ms. Keeffe is reaching into the realm of the absurd. Readers who take this path are playing right into their creditors’ hands.

    Obviously, we’re all different in how we react to money. Perhaps Ms. Keefe’s advice would work for someone out there. Like all finance authors, she has plenty of satisfied-client stories dabbled throughout the book.

    But there’s a reason why card companies love customers who make minimum payments. And for an author to advocate that people do this for an extended period — how long would it take most folks to save up SIX MONTHS’ SALARY? — strikes me as … pathetic. And ridiculous.

    I suppose I could give this book away, but I won’t. Probably better that I keep it stuffed in a dismal corner of my bookshelves, never to escape and/or pollute the mind of some naive debt-choked consumer who thinks How to Get What You Want in Life actually offers a valid way out.

    Filed In: Credit Cards, Debt

    Permalink: Paying the Minimum … Forever?

    9 Comments


     

     

  3. Rewards Checking Gets a Shot

    Posted by Michael • June 10, 2010 @ 8:20 am
    No Comments

    As much as I love ING Direct, where my household’s money is concerned, I’m going to veer away from the orange guys for a while.

    I have to test out some new “banking waters,” you see.

    Like a great many financial bloggers, I’m a huge fan of ING Direct’s Orange Savings account. And I’ve had a tremendous experience with their Electric Orange checking account. I had doubts about the online-only checking concept initially, but the EO account has performed better than I could’ve imagined.

    On top of that, I and all savers are highly indebted to ING for ushering in the whole era of online-only savings accounts in general. Emigrant Direct … HSBC Advance … FNBO Direct … all those guys followed ING’s lead into the online savings space. While many (most!) of them have offered rates better than ING’s, none have executed the online savings account (OSA) concept better. (My personal opinion, of course.)

    But at Four Times the Return…

    So here we are: Savings-account rates are flat on the floor. As such, I can no longer pass up the offers I’m seeing out there for users of “rewards” checking accounts.

    In particular, an Oklahoma credit union at which my wife and I have held various accounts over the years has its own Rewards Checking account that stands apart from most. They’re offering rates currently four times higher than the rates I’m getting with ING’s Orange Savings … and seventeen times better than the payout on Electric Orange.

    Fort Sill Federal CU: FSFCU Rewards Checking (4+% APY)

    Also, since this is an Oklahoma financial institution, the first $200 of interest we earn will be state-tax-deductible for us. That doesn’t add up to much, but it’s better than the deductibility we get from our ING Direct earnings — which is nil.

    The high APY applies to the first $25k of money in the account. After that, if the various requirements (see below) are met, the APY on any additional funds over the $25k level will be .50% APY. If the requirements are not met, the APY on all funds drops to .35%. (Note that this yield is still higher than what’s offered currently on ING’s Electric Orange, which is .25% APY.)

    Rewards Checking: Always Requirements

    As with all rewards checking programs, there are some hefty requirements associated with this account. To get the advertised yield each month, users must:

    • Make at least 12 debit-card purchases
    • Make at least one Direct Deposit or ACH debit
    • Receive statements electronically
    • Access online banking

    For us, all of those “have tos” will be a snap … except one. That “one” is the debit-card purchase requirement.

    I Don’t Like Debit Cards

    Some folks (Dave Ramsey) will tell you that, in the case of fraud, debit cards are just as safe as credit cards. Some folks (Mary Hunt) will tell you they’re not.

    I’ve listened carefully to both sides … and then fallen back on that long-ignored guru, Common Sense. I reside in the camp that says since debit cards give others direct access to your cash funds, they by definition cannot be as safe as credit cards. (Like just about every financial blogger, I’ve done many posts on this topic.)

    Additionally, the daily spending limits associated with debit cards bring along an entirely different set of problems. And don’t get me started on what can happen to your checking account if you’re out of town, travelling, and a debit-card transaction (think rental-car preauthorization, for example) goes wrong.

    In fact, I can’t remember the last time I used a debit card for anything other than cash withdrawals from an ATM. (Actually, now that I think about it, it was probably back in 2008. Had to get that one-time $20 bonus associated with ING’s Electric Orange.)

    But each of those problems can be mitigated somewhat. I’m willing to give it a shot.

    I am, as they say, reaching for yield.

    Here’s What We’ll Do

    I’ve already set up Direct Deposit to the new account, so that part’s handled.

    As for the mandated debit-card use, my plan is for us to use the debit card early and often each month — to get the 12 purchase minimum out of the way as quickly as possible. I want to focus on smaller, necessary, in-person purchases here: auto fuel, weekday lunches, corner-grocery-store stops for milk, bread, and such.

    We won’t be using the debit card in any instance where the card itself will leave our immediate view. If we can swipe the card ourselves, that’s most preferable. If we can watch the cashier swipe it, that’s fine, too. We won’t use debit cards for online purchases under ANY circumstances.

    In addition, I don’t want to give up the “maximizing” of cash-back rewards that we get with our credit cards — refunds of five, two, and one percent on purchases can add up quite nicely. Therefore, we’ll endeavor to put only the smallest of transactions on our debit cards. We’ll still place the bigger purchases and the high-reward category purchases on our credit cards just as we do now. (Balances paid off in full each month, of course.)

    As Things Progress…

    As I get more comfortable with the rewards checking, I plan to move the largest portion of my household’s liquid savings into that account. This will include our Emergency Fund, our Freedom Account funds, and our operating cushion. I have several bills auto-pay from our Electric Orange account; my expectation is to change those to the credit-union rewards checking pretty soon.

    Since this particular credit union isn’t truly “local” to us, I’ll still be keeping cash in several local banks/credit unions.

    I’ll also not be closing our ING accounts. For one thing, while their rates are only “decent,” their ability to move funds from one bank to another quickly is invaluable.

    Related Resources

    Money Musings: Rewards Checking Gets a Shot, Part 2

    Fatwallet: “Available to All” Reward Checking Accounts Thread

    DepositAccounts.com: Reward Checking Accounts List

    Filed In: Banking, Debit Cards, Spending

    Permalink: Rewards Checking Gets a Shot

    No Comments


     

     

  4. Quicken Tip: Use Account Number in Account Name

    Posted by Michael • April 29, 2010 @ 8:05 am
    5 Comments

    If you have a lot of accounts to track in Quicken — as my household does — you might notice that keeping track of which ones are which can be somewhat difficult.

    When I’ve helped others set up and use Quicken, what I’ve seen is that most of them will use pretty standard account names in their Quicken sidebars. “Jane’s Mastercard” and “Chase Sapphire Visa” are examples of what I commonly see.

    Those account names are fine so far as they go. But one thing I’ve discovered over the years is that it’s also very helpful to put the last four digits of the account numbers at the end of your account names. Why?

    So that these digits show in the Quicken sidebar, too.

    Why I Started Doing This

    Since my household uses a variety of credit cards — gotta maximize those cash-back rewards! — it can be a challenge to determine which cards were used for which purchases. This is especially true when we have a handful of receipts waiting in our Cash Flow Box to be logged into Quicken.

    However, since most retailers’ receipts show the last four digits of the debit- or credit-card account used, having the “last four” also show in Quicken’s sidebar makes this task dead simple to accomplish. It’s a snap to see which card or account was used for that week-old Red Lobster receipt!

    Changing Account Details in Quicken

    To make this change (plus a host of others) to your account names in Quicken, simply right-click the account’s name in the sidebar. Select EDIT ACCOUNT from the drop-down menu that appears. That should bring up your Account Details window. These days, I’m using Quicken 2010 Deluxe; yours may look a bit different than this:

    Quicken 'Account Details' Window

    Simply make your changes in the “Account Name” text box, and you’re good to go. You can also change account-balance limits here, and enter credit limits for your credit-card accounts, among other things.

    All in all, using the “last four” in my Quicken account names has been fantastically helpful more times than I’d like to admit!

    Filed In: Banking, Quicken

    Permalink: Quicken Tip: Use Account Number in Account Name

    5 Comments


     

     

  5. Blogger Posts By Category 2006-2010

    Posted by Michael • April 27, 2010 @ 10:52 pm
    Comments Off on Blogger Posts By Category 2006-2010

    The following list — primarily for my own documentation — includes most all of my Blogger-era posts from late 2006 thru March 2010, grouped by category (or “label,” in Blogger lingo).

    Note that most posts prior to Dec. 2006 did not utilize “labels,” and so will not appear in these archives.

    Filed In: Archives

    Permalink: Blogger Posts By Category 2006-2010

    Comments Off on Blogger Posts By Category 2006-2010


     

     

  6. Our Debt Paydown

    Posted by Michael • April 16, 2010 @ 9:30 pm
    1 Comment

    Like so many people, my family has lived with debt (of one sort or another) our entire lives.

    On a website and blog that’s focused on dispatching debt, padding savings, and improving net worth, I feel it’s important that I keep readers abreast of my own money situation. Moreover, when it comes to achieving debt freedom, in my case, I’ve accomplished much more since I’ve made myself somewhat “accountable to the world” in this fashion. I began IYM in early 2002 with just this intent, and it worked beautifully.

    A Brief History

    I’ve been up to my neck in debt, and I’ve been debt-free except for the mortgage.

    Debt-free is better.

    As I relate in my IYM: About Us page, we first became “debt-free, except for the mortgage” in 2005. That all changed in December of that same year — see (“How Quickly It All Changes” for more info. Automobile debt (“There’s Something New in the Garage”) crept back into our financial picture.

    So what debts do we have now, and why?

    A Mortgage

    At an effective interest rate of 2.75% (thanks to MCC tax credits) for 15 years, I’m in no great hurry to pay this off. It’s not included in our Debt Paydown.

    … And Nothing Else!

    On the right column, the amount shown in my Debt Paydown reflected my balance on our last auto loan. When we bought our 2006 Accord in December of 2005, we put $4,000 down and financed the balance for 5 years at 3.95 percent. We paid this loan off in early September of 2008, after a mere 990 days.

    What About Student Loans?

    I paid off the last of my student loans (“So Long, Sallie Mae”) in May of 2005. I’d taken out the first of these loans way back in 1990. (Oh, all the interest I paid!)

    What About Credit Cards?

    We became free of credit-card debt in December, 2004. And yes, it felt really good. As I recall, the highest balance we ever accumulated was in the $10,000 range. (Seeing those red five-digit numbers in Quicken wasn’t fun, either.)

    These days, a glance at our household balance sheet will almost always show that we have credit-card balances outstanding. Don’t let your head explode, though.

    Instead, rest assured that if there’s credit-card debt on our balance sheet, it consists of portions which are either (1) non-revolving, and paid off every month; or (2) for 0% credit-card arbitrage. I hold these balances in either my ING Direct (review) savings accounts or in short-term Treasuries.

    And that’s the lowdown on our Debt Paydown!

    Filed In: Debt

    Permalink: Our Debt Paydown

    1 Comment


     

     

  7. How We Manage Our Money

    Posted by Michael • January 27, 2009 @ 9:04 am
    9 Comments

    It’s been a while since I discussed how my household manages its money; the last time was in October of 2006. Some things have changed since then, and since readers continue to ask my opinion on ways to keep funds running smoothly at the ol’ homestead, I’d like to cover the topic again.

    Receipts, Receipts, Everywhere

    This, inevitably, is Issue Numero Uno for many readers: How can I keep track of my spending as well as my spouse’s? It’s impossible to know where the money’s going!

    Actually, it isn’t. Or, perhaps more correctly, it hasn’t been for us. Oh sure — it was a challenge for a while. Back when we were paying bills from our checking accounts (more on that later), we ran into a few obstacles. But once we became debt-free and were able pay our card balances in full each month, things got easier.

    Cash Flow in a Box

    So how to handle all those receipts? Well, we do it with a box.

    This invention, I call our Cash Flow Box. Whenever either of us spends money, we tuck the receipts into our wallets RIGHT THEN. Later, once we get home, we toss the receipts in our Cash Flow box. Mail and bills go here, too.

    Since I’m the guy who handles bill-paying and money-tracking for our household (gee, can’t imagine why), I sit down every couple of days and enter the receipts into Quicken. (You can tell I’m a sicko, because I actually enjoy this part. Then again, I’ve found that being in control of your money tends to have just this sort of odd, Twilight Zone effect on people.)

    If any receipts need to be kept for tax purposes (or some other reason), I have a set of manilla folders right next to the box for just this purpose. Think flexible-spending account receipts, small-business expenses, and large-item purchases (where warranty might be an issue) here.

    The rest of the receipts get File Thirteen’d as soon as I enter them in Quicken.

    Easy peasy.

    Joint Checking … Times Four

    For starters, our household has multiple joint checking accounts — four of them, in fact. And a host of savings accounts (online variety, mostly) on top of that.


    Click here to start saving with ING DIRECT!

    I primarily use our ING Direct Electric Orange checking, while Lisa uses a local credit-union checking account. Due to its extreme ease of use, ING Direct also holds most of our savings at present.

    Since ING Direct isn’t exactly a “local” banking entity for us — if you need to see someone face-to-face, whatcha gonna do? — we also have two joint, no-fee checking and savings combos at local institutions. We generally keep only a few hundred dollars in these “just in case” accounts.

    Pay It All By Plastic

    Here’s the caveat to all these checking accounts: We rarely pay for anything by check. Every expense than can go on plastic OR can be paid electronically will be handled that way. We use two cash-back, no-fee cards for this. We pay these cards in full every month.

    Because of this, we typically write no more than one or two paper checks per month.

    Spending and Account Balances


    I am a Quicken devotee. It is my Ultimate Money Security Blanket, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. I depend on Quicken like snow depends on cold.

    Right now, my laptop runs Quicken 2010 Deluxe (review), which I believe is one of the best Quicken versions yet.

    Quicken tracks our spending, our account balances, our net worth, our bills and recurring payments, and about a thousand other things that are only important once or twice per year. (Use taxes would be one!)

    And oh yeah — I now use Quicken for our…

    Budgeting!

    Honestly, we don’t need much of a budget these days. With no debt (other than our mortgage) and a definite aversion to long-term financial commitments, we just don’t have that many bills coming through the door. Savings-building is our goal now, and I can accomplish it just fine, thank you, with Quicken’s recently-added Cash Flow Tab.

    Cash Flow - Click to Enlarge

    What’s coming in? What’s going out? The Cash Flow Tab tells me what I need to know. Once I got our recurring bills and deposits set up, and designated the correct “spending” accounts for Quicken to monitor, I no longer had any need for my Spending Plan spreadsheet at all.

    I love my Spending Plan spreadsheet. But having my budgeting tool contained within Quicken makes things oh so simple.

    And simple is good.

    Download Transactions? Nope!

    I have never once used Quicken’s ability to download transactions from banks and other financial institutions. As noted elsewhere, I enter all Quicken transactions by hand.

    Keeps me “closer” to our spending, ya know? (Plus I’ve heard too many horror stories about transaction downloads going horribly wrong!)

    The All-Important Freedom Account

    I believe that the discipline to save up for future expenses — rather than relying on the kind-heartedness of Visa and Mastercard — is a hallmark of successful personal finance. Heck, it may be THE hallmark.

    In any event, we do such saving in our Freedom Account, which resides with the rest of our savings at ING Direct. Why?

    Because it’s darn easy (and immediate) to transfer funds to our Electric Orange checking, where the vast majority of our transactions land at some point. (We pay our credit cards electronically via Electric Orange.)

    This is one area where Quicken falls short. Since it doesn’t allow for subaccounts, I track our FA subaccount balances with ExcelGeek’s Freedom Account spreadsheet.

    Emergency Fund

    I don’t have a specific spreadsheet that I use to track my Emergency Fund. We’re currently keeping most of our E-fund (say, 90% of it) at ING Direct. Any transactions which affect our Emergency Fund get logged/tracked in Quicken, as noted above, and I can always see our E-fund’s balance right there in my Quicken toolbar.

    Small-Business Stuff

    Lisa and I both have our own small-business ventures. I utilize QuickBooks 2009 Pro to manage these tasks.

    Credit Monitoring & ID Safety

    I monitor our credit reports and scores monthly. I do this with TrueCredit 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring . (Here’s my TrueCredit review, if you’re interested.)

    Whew … that should pretty much cover it!

    Filed In: Budgeting, Quicken, Saving, Spending

    Permalink: How We Manage Our Money

    9 Comments


     

     

  8. 12 Things Said By People Who Suck With Money

    Posted by Michael • May 21, 2007 @ 10:14 am
    17 Comments

    Pardon me, folks, whilst I take a moment for myself. I’m going to vent right now, mostly because it feels like a great time to Go Soapbox on the world.

    I don’t know exactly what set me off this evening (it’s late Sunday as I write this). But I’m pretty sure that the NY Times article “Couple Learn the High Price of Easy Credit” didn’t help. Thanks to Tricia at Blogging Away Debt for linking it. But after reading it, I don’t feel at all that this couple has what it takes to climb out of their hole. From the article:

    … and $13,680 on a CashBuilder Elite Visa, including a monthly finance charge of $200.

    A “CashBuilder Elite” Visa? Finance charges of $200? That’s the great thing about credit cards and the credit-card industry: Sometimes the irony is Just. So. Thick.

    Anyhow, let’s get to the show. Let me find my trusty ol’ cynical soapbox…

    12 Things You Hear From People
    Who (Probably) Suck With Money

    1. “Don’t look at me. It’s my [wife/husband] who spends it all.”

      Of course. And if you blame them long enough, it’ll all work itself out in the end, right? Or at least the judge will make it so it does. (“Work itself out,” and “end,” I mean.)

    2. “Who has time to budget? Not me.”

      This one’s pretty universal. The convenient thing is that they’ll have plenty of time to budget when they hit retirement and stop workin—

      Oh, wait. Never mind.

    3. “We refinanced last week and paid off our credit cards.”

      No, you didn’t “pay off” your debt, Maureen. You just moved it. And you’ll be moving again when the bank forecloses on your house. But first things first: You need to get those cards maxed-out again.

      Then . . . just give it time.

    4. “I wanted to pay off the cards, but my husband says his investments are doing better than the interest.”

      If your cards are charging you today’s standard rates — say, 14 to 18 percent interest — then I have news for you:

      Your husband is either lying, or he can’t do math.

      Just sayin’.

      (Note: Pfbloggers and FatWalleters are exempt from this one.)

    5. “Yeah, it was a lot of money. But you only live once, right?”

      I’m not sure. But as long you’re alive, you might as well be making payments.

    6. “Of course I need the new Dodge Behemoth SUV. It’s safer for our child, and my show poodles need more space.”

      Which is precisely why I can only dream of watching folks like this filling up in a world of four-bucks-a-gallon gas—

      Oh, wait. Never mind.

    7. “I couldn’t save money even if I wanted to.”

      No, what you probably mean is that you couldn’t sacrifice even if you wanted to. Which you don’t.

      But that’s okay. The folks at Crate ‘n’ Barrel love you.

    8. “I could pay all my bills off if they’d just give me that [raise/promotion/bonus] at work.”

      Yeah, you and everyone else. Except that when more money comes in, it just means that more money goes out, and you’re right back at #7 (above) again. That’s why they call it the Rat Race.

    9. “Man, if I won the lottery, all my money problems would be history.”

      No, what you mean is that all your money problems would be historic. As in of epic proportions. Because if you can’t manage thirty grand a year, you can’t manage three hundred grand, either. Mark it down.

      The line of lottery winners who’ve gone broke starts right over there. And it stretches all the way back to . . . oh, I don’t know. Maybe Miami.

    10. “I put it on my Worst Buy card, so I have six months to pay it off before there’s any interest. We’ll have it paid off by then.”

      Sure you will. You, again, and everybody else. You could’ve paid for it with cash if you’d wanted to, right?

      (Another instance where most money-bloggers and FatWalleters are probably exempt.)

    11. “But it’s my wedding! I dreamed about it forever, I want to remember it forever, and I want for that day to be fabulous!”
      Okay. So I heard this from someone doing an interview on TV. It might’ve been a put-on for all I know. But there are ladies out there who feel this way, right? I just got exceedingly lucky and met one who didn’t, right?

      Worth noting: It’s easy to remember your “fabulous wedding” forever when forever is how long you (and/or your parents) will be paying for it.

    12. “Hello there. I’m Joe Smith. I’m a U.S. Congressman. How are you today?”

      Fine, thanks. So . . . you, uh . . . you deficit much, Mr. Smith? How’s that darn federal-budget-thing working out for you? Tell me: Do you guys ever actually use those calculators we taxpayers paid twelve grand for?

    Okay. That’s about all I can come up with right now. What sorts of things have you heard uttered from the mouths of financial slackers? What little snippets tip you off that someone’s stuck on the First Rule of Holes, figuratively speaking?

    Filed In: Budgeting, Debt, Saving, Spending

    Permalink: 12 Things Said By People Who Suck With Money

    17 Comments


     

     

  9. Debit Card Fraud Interview

    Posted by Michael • July 2, 2006 @ 6:30 pm
    8 Comments

    Bank debit cards are a topic that I seem to return to quite often.

    My opinion, I think, has been pretty well documented: Financial gurus (namely, Dave Ramsey) who suggest that people should entirely shun credit cards and use only debit/ATM cards for purchases are flat-out wrong.

    Debit cards bring great convenience, yes. But the benefit they offer that’s so fabulous for consumers — immediate access to available funds — is also their greatest liability. That immediate access is available to anyone who gets their hands on your info, too. And your Hometown National Bank almost certainly does NOT maintain the same security measures for card usage as do the large banks who manage your credit-card accounts.

    Anyhow, I had the opportunity recently to interview a young couple whose checking account was compromised, thanks to debit-card fraud, to the tune of roughly $500. If you’re interested, you can read the interview here:

    Interview with Bob and Sue Smith, Debit-Card Fraud Victims

    Filed In: Banking

    Permalink: Debit Card Fraud Interview

    8 Comments


     

     

  10. Debit Card Drawbacks

    Posted by Michael • June 28, 2012 @ 8:10 am
    No Comments

    I’ve mentioned it numerous times on IYM: Debit cards are a great tool, but they have serious drawbacks, too. And there are some things for which they’re totally unacceptable.

    Cue the piece from USA Today:

    USA Today: Debit Card Holds Can Derail Travel Plans

    Dave Ramsey loves to talk up debit cards, but as the article tells us, there are times (vacations, for one) when you really ought to keep that particular slab of account-zapping plastic tucked in your pocket.

    What makes debit cards even worse? Well, as my daily dealings with Joe Q. Public have taught me, there are still a great many folks who have no idea how debit-card daily limits and hold policies actually work. (Though, to be fair, most people also have no idea how their credit-card policies work, either, so why would it be any different for debit cards?)

    Filed In: Credit Cards, Dave Ramsey, Debit Cards

    Permalink: Debit Card Drawbacks

    No Comments