My Two Dollars

Money Quote Friday – Tomorrow Is A New Day/Moving Edition.

David — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:30:13 +0000

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s time to move on and start over. Today is the day I am moving to Colorado, so My Two Dollars will be offline for a few days until I get settled in up there (and get an internet connection back). I hope you guys all have a fantastic weekend and see you next week. Wish me luck.

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A Dream Will Lead You Out of Debt.

David — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:30:57 +0000

The processes and practices of getting our personal finances in order are simple to understand, but difficult to implement because they involve behavior changes. In the past something about how you were managing your finances was working for you – you were getting something beneficial from it or you would have been doing it differently. For me, I was getting to avoid facing reality and could go on pretending to be “successful”.

A dream is what is going to get you through the process of changing your behavior. A Dream is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal; an idea that today seems a bit unrealistic, but so moving that the possibility of getting there will influence how you choose to live your life.

Somewhere along the way in life you may have stopped dreaming. I know I did. I don’t know the exact date, but I can pinpoint the time. It was when I began to see my options evaporating because of the choices I had made. My accumulation of debt left me needing to work at jobs that were not my passion. Debt left me unable to afford to travel – one of my passions. The Dream of taking a year off from working to travel the world no longer seemed anywhere close to being a reality.

Today, after getting my personal finances in order, my dream is becoming a reality. This dream serves as a compass by which I can check my habits and behavior. I can ask myself daily, “Is this action going to lead me in the direction of my dream or is it going to lead me somewhere else?” If my behaviors aren’t leading towards my dream then I can change my behavior to get back on course.

What is your DREAM?

Personal finance coach Matt Kelly blogs at personalfinancecoaching.com; through his coaching he empowers clients to become accountable and responsible for their dreams. This transformation eliminates the “usual” stress of financial worries and improves all aspects of his client’s lives.

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The 2009 Best Small Towns To Live In.

David — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:18:48 +0000

CNN/Money has come out with their 2009 Best Places To Live – Small Towns list, and I always enjoy checking out the towns that they include. And to my surprise this year, my hometown was ranked #16! I mean, it’s a great New England town, for sure, but to see it at #16 was pretty cool. I am sure that my mom would agree, and I have fond memories of growing up there. This is what they said about Acton, MA:

With its myriad landmarks from the American Revolution and its 1,600 acres of conservation land, Acton has a traditional New England vibe. But it’s also a highly diverse town with a large Asian community and a nonprofit Chinese-language school. The town’s progressive school system is ranked among the best in the state. Jobs are relatively stable here, thanks to large area employers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Cisco. Many residents commute into Boston by rail.

Here are the Top 10 small towns, and you can check out the site to check out all 100:

1 Louisville, CO
2 Chanhassen, MN
3 Papillion, NE
4 Middleton, WI
5 Milton, MA
6 Warren, NJ
7 Keller, TX
8 Peachtree City, GA
9 Lake St. Louis, MO
10 Mukilteo, WA

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Looks Like Progressive Insurance Is Cheapest…

David — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:30:28 +0000

…for my car in Colorado, at least. I have had State Farm car and renter’s insurance here in New Mexico, and while they have been fine I do think that they are a little on the expensive side for Colorado. The best insurance company I have ever had the pleasure of doing business with was Wawanesa, but they are only for residents of California and Oregon (unless that has changed and I didn’t notice). So, I had to start looking around and it looks like Progressive is going to be the best combination of price/value/convenience for me in Denver. And because I am a new customer, I will be signing up online, and I am going to pay my 6 month premium in advance, I am getting a one-time discount of $69 off my 6 month rate. So for my 2008 Subaru with very decent coverage, I will pay $357 for 6 months – or the equivalent of $59.50 per month. Not bad at all.

No insurance company is complaint-free though, and Progressive is no different. There are plenty of complaints on the internet about every company, so I cannot choose an insurance company based on those alone. Several people I know have had good luck with Progressive, so I will have to trust that these guys will be OK for what I need. And that brings me to you guys – what insurance company do you use? Do you like them? Do you hate them? Maybe a few comments from readers can give me some insight I may be missing out on!

Photo from Shutterstock

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Vehicle Tax Deductions For 2009 Tax Year.

David — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:25:55 +0000

Thinking of buying a new car in 2009 to get the tax benefits? Better act fast – you only have 60 or so days left before 2010! Because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, any new car, light truck, recreational vehicle or motorcycle purchased between February 17 and December 31, 2009 is eligible for a state and local motor vehicle sales and excise taxes deduction on your federal tax return. To get the full deduction of the taxes, your new car must not have cost more than $49,500 and you must not have made more than $125,000 ($250,000 for joint filers) in 2009. Of course, you have to still pay the taxes due when you buy the car, but you do get the money back when you file your taxes in a few months.

Unfortunately, the deduction doesn’t apply to used cars, but then again some of you may have taken advantage of the even bigger Cash for Clunkers program which handed out $4,500 to prospective buyers. Overall, it’s been a pretty good year to buy a new car – too bad I didn’t need one!

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After 16 Years, A Credit Card Account Gets Closed Without My Knowledge.

David — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:30:22 +0000

Since 1993, when I was still in college, I have had a credit card with a certain company. Right now they call themselves FIA/IBS, but over the years they have been called various things. Well, as I said I have had this card on my credit report for 16 years, making it the longest line of credit I still ~~have~~ had open – until last week when they decided to close my account without even telling me. The card hadn’t been used in about a year, as I only use my Chase Amtrak rewards card now, but I still wanted to keep the card open (due to how long I had had it) and figured I would use it every once in a while to make sure it stayed that way. But FIA/IBS did not see it that way and proceeded to just cancel and close the account…and the only way I found out was because I called to change the address on the card in preparation of my move to Colorado.

When I called the (of course) automated phone tree and entered my credit card number, the robot voice on the other end told me my account was closed. Thinking there must have been a mistake and knowing that I never canceled the card, I waited patiently for 11 minutes until a human came on the line. I asked him about this account and he confirmed that the company closed it a while back due to inactivity. I asked him when they were planning on letting me know this, and he didn’t know if they were ever going to. I was pretty pissed – not because I lost some of my open credit but because I was a customer of theirs for 16 years and they couldn’t even bother contacting me to see if I wanted to keep the card open by using it. No phone call, no email, no letter…nothing. They just decided one day to close the account and ding my credit score a little bit. Thanks FIA/IBS!

The moral of the story? You don’t matter – not that you ever did, really. But I did figure that a 16 year relationship with a company mattered enough to warrant a phone call, but I guess I figured wrong. So if you have any open lines of credit that you haven’t used in a while, I would call and ask about them. You don’t want to go to use it and have it be closed on you, do you? I will be sticking with my Chase card (not that they care either, but I have never had any issues with them) for now, and as for FIA/IBS/Whatever you are called, thank you for breaking up with me. I have no interest in being with a company that couldn’t care any less about a 16 year customer.

Photo from Shutterstock

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10,000 Ultimate Rewards Points For Chase Sapphire Card Signup.

David — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:39:45 +0000

This looks like a pretty good credit card if you are into cards that pay our rewards for usage. The Chase Sapphire card lets you use your reward points however you want – for things like paying yourself back for purchases you make, for travel with no blackout dates, or for restaurant dining certificates – and the points you earn have no caps, no limits, no expiration date. (Even my AA card miles will expire eventually, since I don’t fly anymore) You can earn 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase, the card has no annual fee, and you get 24/7 access to live, dedicated customer service advisors. Looking at the details, those 10,000 bonus points could be worth $100 in statement credits, so it’s a pretty good deal right off the top. I am happy with my Chase rewards card, but if I wasn’t and/or I was looking for a new rewards card, I might consider applying for this one too.

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Money Quote Friday – Contentment Edition.

David — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:30:01 +0000

“Contentment makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.” — Benjamin Franklin

Money can’t buy happiness, that’s for sure. Have a great weekend everyone…

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The Best Places For Green Tech Jobs.

David — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:06:46 +0000

Considering ditching your current employer and looking for better pastures in the field of green tech? Now might be a good time to do so, according to CNN/Money. A recent article from them lists the best cities poised to do the best in clean, green tech, so if you live near one (or don’t mind moving) these would be the places to start looking for that new career. Here is the Top 5 from the list:

1. San Francisco — Oakland — San Jose, CA

2. Los Angeles — Riverside — Orange County, CA

3. New York — Northern New Jersey — Long Island, NY, NJ, CT, PA

4. Boston — Worcester — Lawrence — Lowell — Brockton, MA, NH

5. Washington — Baltimore, DC, MD, VA, WV

Click through to see the rest of the cities and to read more about the green job boom.

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Comparing Prescription Prices To Save Myself A Ton Of Money.

David — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:30:32 +0000

Within a few weeks, I will be without insurance for the first time in my adult. Why? Well, a few reasons. The biggest reason, and the one I have not mentioned here yet, is that my wife and I are divorcing and I have been on her group insurance plan. She has amazing insurance (one advantage to being a teacher, I suppose) that I will no longer have access to as soon as the divorce is final, unfortunately. And to continue with COBRA under her plan, it would cost me over $500 a month – an expense I cannot incur at this time. The second reason, and why I cannot get insurance on my own, is actually two-fold:

1. I am self-employed, so I need to buy private insurance
2. I cannot get private insurance because I had cancer last year

So, I will be without health insurance until this country joins the rest of the civilized world in offering a government-sponsored health plan for people like myself, I get a job at Starbucks, or I get married to someone in a group plan. Fantastic! Anyway, that’s not my main point of writing this post and I will cover this more in-depth in a future one. For now, I just wanted to talk about buying prescriptions when you don’t have insurance. Did you know that the “no insurance” price for medication varies by quite a bit depending on where you buy it? Even if a Target and a Walmart are right next door to each other, their prices can vary. And since I am on a medication that I take every morning (and need to continue taking), I had to start shopping for the cheapest place to buy my medicine from. I was honestly surprised by what I found out, and I imagine there are a ton of people paying way more than they need to for their daily meds. Some pharmacies discount for supplies longer than 30 days, but some don’t, so I am basing this on a per-month basis.

Local pharmacy here in Taos – $17.50 per month
Target in Denver – $28.99 per month
Walmart in Denver – $23.00 per month (although even if they were free, I wouldn’t get them here)
Costco – $12.56 per month (90 day only $23!)
Walgreens in Denver – $29.99 per month

The clear winner? Costco, by a long shot. They are $5 less per month than the next cheapest, my current pharmacy for the 9 days I have left in New Mexico. And if I get 90 days at a time from Costco, the price drops to $7.66 per month, which is crazy amount of savings over the regular pharmacies. The best part? You don’t need to be a member of Costco to use their pharmacy! Since I will be a single guy once again, I don’t have much need for bulk amounts of milk from the store, so it’s good that I don’t need a membership to get my discounted drugs.

So for those of you who might not have insurance (or not very good insurance, at least) might want to call up all the local pharmacies in your area and ask them how much your meds cost. I am so glad I did, as it looks like it is going to save me quite a bit of money each and every month. Now if Costco could just offer me health insurance, I would be all set…

Photo from Shutterstock

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