Budget Freak

For the past 6 months, I had been using Money Manager Ex to keep track of my finances. It had worked out pretty well for keeping track of my day to day expenses, but the more I used it, the more it was lacking. Not to say that it’s a bad program, but I wanted to keep track of more than the program would allow. I had tried using a demo version of Microsoft Money, but ultimately, I didn’t want to have to pay for the software.

Enter GnuCash. A free, open-source financial program, that has just become available for windows (before it was Linux only). GnuCash offers a much more robust program, forcing you to use double-entry accounting (ie. for each transaction, you need a balancing credit and debit), can track investments and fixed assets, and has much better method of splitting transactions. The reporting functionality is also much better, and is customizable.

One of the biggest differences, is I’ll be able to track taxes and pre-tax deductions. Before, when I got a paycheck, I would only input my Net Income, or after tax and deduction money. For example, if I had a $1,000 gross paycheck, I might only enter $600 income, thus losing my tax, health insurance, and 401k deductions. Now, I can record my gross income, as well as all the taxes and deductions. I can now also track my car loan better. I can now not only keep track of payments, but also expense the interest I’m being charged. If nothing else, I’ll be able to actually see how much money the loan is costing me.

I’ve spent a few hours over the last week migrating the past 6 months worth of transactions over, and I’m now completely switched. As a result, all my monthly expense totals for the past 6 months have changed. One of these days I’ll go back and make a note of the changes, but for now, just know that June’s expense report will look a little different. Anywho, I’ll keep you updated on how the software is working, but my so far, it’s working great.

The company I’ve been working for as a contractor for the past 10 months, opened up a full time job for my position. After a few months of waiting for the job to post, a round of interviews, and another 2 weeks for them to make a decision, they offered me the job. In the mean time, I told my current employer about the new job, and they made me a counter off with a pretty big promotion and a nice raise. It was a fantastic position I’d never been in before.

The job I had before was with a small company (~20 employees), and was still a pretty young consulting company. The new offer came from one of the largest businesses in the world (~100,000 employees), a major oil company. The consulting company offered me a project manager role, a nice promotion with lots more responsibility, where as the oil company offered me a data analyst position, which is basically what I’ve been doing for the last year. The salaries were comparable, so how was I going to decide??

I decided to go with the big oil company. Ultimately, it came down to the benefits, and potential career growth.

The project manager role would have been a fantastic promotion, but there wouldn’t have been much room to grow after that. At the oil company, I may have less responsibility at first, but two years down the line, my options are almost limitless. They have opportunities on 6 different continents, in just every aspect of business. I know people who work there now that have taken 2-3 year assignments in remote parts of Alaska, the middle east, and all over Europe. I’m working in the Environmental department now, but I could easily transfer to a process control group, health and safety, or any number of different departments.

As for benefits, I had to make a spreadsheet listing all the benefits and do a side by side comparison. The big oil company had a huge advantage when you looked at the standard medical and retirement benefits. They matched 7% of the 401k contributions (vs. 3%), they’re about $100 cheaper per month for health and dental insurance, and, amazingly, they have a pension plan. They use a strange formula to calculate contributions, but for my salary and age, I would be getting over $4,000 per year, free. Of course I couldn’t touch it for 40 years, and it doesn’t vest for 5 years, but thinking long term, that’s a huge advantage.

There were also some fringe benefits I had to examine. For example, as a consultant, I’d get to work from home 3-4 days per week. That would save me about $200 per month on gas and car expenses. The consulting company also pays for my telephone and internet connection, another $70 or so a month. On the other side, the oil company has a 9/80 work schedule, which means I’d work 80 hours every 9 days, which in other words, I’d have every other Friday off. They’re also flexible with the day off, so if you time them around holidays, you can easily get 4 day weekends pretty routinely. The other benefit of the 9/80 schedule, is that my girlfriend works a 4/10 schedule, so she gets every Friday off, and I would definitely spend more time with her.

The biggest factor, which trumps everything above, is that the oil company will pay for my MBA. Specifically, they will pay 90% of tuition, books, fees, etc, with no maximum. That means if I decide to go to either of my top choices, Pepperdine ($60,000) or UCLA ($80,000), I would only have to pay $6,000 or $8,000. That’s a huge advantage in my book.

So there you have it. I gave both opportunities a chance, but when I calculated everything out, the choice became pretty obvious. Hopefully this will give other people an idea of what things to look for when they’re deciding between jobs. I have another week and a half at my old job, and then I’ll start at the big oil company the first week of July. Wish me luck! Our online pharmacy is the perfect resource for people to get their drugs without any hassles or awkwardness. buy cialis We work hard to make sure you save money every time you shop with us. buy levitrabuy soma At our online store, you pay less and get more. buy viagra

I’d like to nominate myself for ‘Idiot of the Year.’ After explaining all the pitfalls of 0% balance transfers, how dangerous it can be, and how careful you need to track your due dates… I miss a payment. I was reconciling my checking account and my bank showed I had $148 more than my records, exactly one payment on my Citi Professional card. Panic sunk in, and I rushed over to Citi’s website, to realize my worst fears - I had missed May’s payment. Now well into June, I now had 2 minimum monthly payments, a $102 finance charge, and a $39 late fee starring at me. Worst of all, my 0% promotional rate had ended, and I was defaulted to the standard 12.99%.

After I calmed down a bit I made the $390 minimum payment and gave Citi a call. I explained the situation, how my records show I had made the payment, but neither Citi nor my bank showed the payment. He told me they might be able to give me back the 0% promotional offer, but I would have to call back the next day, after my payment had posted.

The next day, I made another call to Citi and explained again. The payment had gone through, and I asked about returning to my 0% rate. He put me on hold to talk with a manager. After about a minute of the most intense telephone on-hold experience of my life, the service rep came back and told me that, only this once, they could restore my 0% rate. Thank God. I asked about the finance charges or the late fee, and he basically said, ‘Too bad.’
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So, please let this be a lesson to everybody out there. Don’t forget to make your minimum monthly payments!! I think I got VERY lucky this time, and I only escaped with $140 in finance charges and penalties. That will cut into my profits this round, but I’ll still end up positive, so long as there aren’t any more mistakes.

Despite some heavier than normal expenses, and in turn, a fairly small net income, I was able to grow my net worth almost 6%. My cash reserves were down 11% for the month, mostly due to some index fund purchases. My retirement and investment categories were both up 10% and 62% respectively, between contributions and another great month in the stock market. Assets were up a total of 3% overall. Liabilities were down 1% for the month. I’m continuing to pay off my 0% balance transfer money each month, and I’m contributing $500 per month towards my car loan. All told, a moderately good month. Could have been a lot worse. Here’s to a better June. online pharmacy without prescriptionbuy silverbuy detoxbuy italian charmsdownload softwareonline pharmacy no prescriptioncanadian pharmacydownload moviesfarmacia en lineainternet drugstoremovie downloadmexican pharmacybuy gift basketsbuy levitrabuy hoodiaprescription drugsdownload moviebuy dvdcheap auto insurancebuy jewelrybuy jewelry onlinecheap online pharmacybuy alcohol testdownload filmdownload musicdownload mp3prescription drugsbuy notebook batterydownload moviesonline pharmacybuy charmsbuy piercingpiercingflash games onlinebuy propecia onlinesearchpiercingno prescription pharmacyonline pharmacyonline pharmacy no prescriptiondownload moviescanadian pharmacybuy soma onlinebuy carisoprodol onlineitalian charmsindian pharmacybuy viagra onlinegeneric viagra onlinebuy levitra onlinegeneric cialis onlineonline pharmacy without prescriptionno prescription online pharmacytransformers movieeuropean online pharmacyprivate porn moviesbuy phentrimine onlineonline pharmacy no prescriptionbuy jewelry onlinejewelry shopsilver shophealth articlespass a drug testbuy oem softwareeuropean pharmacydvd movies

Another months gone by, so it’s time for a checkup. Here’s my expense breakdown:

Automobile : Maintenance $ 26.79
Automobile : Gas $ 373.78
Automobile : Car Payment $ 500.00
Automobile : Parking/Tolls $ 17.00
Bills : Telephone $ 64.05
Bills : Gas $ 9.02
Bills : Rent $ 650.00
Bills : Cable TV/Internet $ 89.87
Bills : Cell Phone $ 85.90
Electronics : Cell Phone $ 108.49
Food : Groceries $ 128.90
Food : Dining out $ 151.24
Food : Booze $ 31.86
Gifts $ 50.81
Healthcare $ 10.00
Homeneeds $ 91.26
Homeneeds : Clothing $ 50.81
Homeneeds : Kitchen $ 41.76
Insurance : Auto $ 7.42
Internets : Domain Registration $ 16.53
Internets : Hosting $ 179.68
Leisure : Movies $ 21.50
Leisure : Newspaper $ 9.08
Leisure : Concert Tickets $ 180.75
Vacation : Lodging $ 134.40

Total $ 3,151.12

It was another expensive month for me, although I did manage to earn more than I spent (barely). I took care of a few important expenses now, so I wont’ have to worry about them later. The domain hosting for $180 is prepaid for two years. Normally I pay $10 per month, but by prepaying for 2 years, I saved about 20%. Also, I bought some things for around the house, cleaning supplies, toiletries, socks and underwear, and some cooking supplies that totaled around $180. Those should last me at least 6 months. I also attended a wedding last month up near San Francisco. I drove, so the Gas category is about $120 higher than usual, and I stuck paying for two toll roads for another $8. I also paid for one of the nights in a hotel, for another $135.

I bought 6 tickets for an upcoming concert (Flight of the Conchords if you’re wondering), of which, I should be reimbursed $120 from friends. I also got my ‘Booze’ category a little more under control. Last month I spend over $150, and this month, it was a more reasonable $31.

It wasn’t a great month, but I took care of a lot of one time expenses. I’m planning on buckling down in June. Less eating out, less entertainment costs, less Booze. Time to get my budget back on track. Stay tuned.

After talking about the most awesome cell phone deal last week, it’s gotten a little better. I read over at My Money Blog that you can get another $50 off coupon applied to your bill. I wrote up my email just like Jonathan did, asked them to apply the ‘SAVE50′ coupon, and sure enough, got the same response, that the customer service agent would be “happy to assist me” with my credit. A two minute email saved me another $50.

I recently signed up for the cell phone deal of the century. It’s the Sprint Employee Referral Offer. For $30 a month, you get 500 minutes and an unlimited data plan. For comparison, my old Cingular phone cost me $40 per month for 450 minutes and NO data plan. Cingular’s data plan is another $20/month. Also, through the end of June, Sprint is throwing in unlimited text messaging package for free. Cingular charges another $20 for unlimited texting. Furthermore, the Sprint plan comes with unlimited nights and weekend minutes that start at 7pm, where Cingular’s plan only had 5000 N&M that started at 9pm. You can get the early nights and weekend on Cingular for another $9/month.

So, let’s add it all up:
Old Cingular Plan - $39/month
450 minutes, NO data, NO texting, N&W @ 9pm

Cingular Plan Similiar to Sprint SERO - $89/month
450 minutes + unlimited data + unlimited text + Nights & Weekends @ 7pm

Sprint SERO Plan - $30/month
500 minutes + unlimited data + unlimited text + Nights & Weekends @ 7pm

That’s a savings of 66%!! Also, there are rumors on the message boards (see below) that you can get a corporate discount if you work for certain companies. If I get the job I’m applying for, I’d be eligible for another 20% discount. That would bring my monthly bill down to $24!

I also got a pretty cool phone, the Motorola Q. It’s a smartphone, so I can surf the internets, check my email, and sync up my calendar. For a techie guy like myself, it’s fantastic. The phone cost $100 when I signed up, but there’s a $100 mail in rebate. Also, there’s a referral bonus if you tell them another Sprint customer referred you. After you get your phone, you can call #REF and type in the Sprint Customer’s phone number, and you’ll both get a $25 Visa Check Card!

This deal was so hot, I immediately canceled my Cingular contract AND paid the early termination fee (I still had 8 months on my contract). It’ll take about a year to recover the loss of the $150 fee (saving $15/month), but my cellular life will be much more enjoyable in the mean time.

If you’re shopping around for a new cell phone or if you’re just sick of you’re old plan, and you’re interested in signing up for this deal, check out the forums over at Slick Deals. Thanks to Jonathan at My Money Blog and the Consumerist for pointing this deal out.

By the way, if anybody does sign up and needs a referral for the $25, please drop me an email.

Turns out I did miss the extra $50 sign up bonus from Citibank. I wrote Citibank to see if they could apply the better offer, but they said they couldn’t. Oh well. An extra $50 would have been nice, but I’m still happy with the $50 they will be giving me.

If YOU want to take advantage of the $100 offer, you must be a new Citibank customer, and USE THIS LINK.

As you may know, I’ve been making money taking advantage of 0% balance transfers offered by many credit cards. So far, I’ve made over $90, and I’ll be getting another interest payout of $75 by the end of the month. When taking advantage of these offers, it’s critical to keep up with payments. Any late payments, and the 0% offer is revoked and you’re stuck paying interest. I’ve paid 3 bills so far on my two different cards, and it’s been pretty smooth. I’ve also helped myself by setting up reminders that go off at various times the week before the payment is due. If you try something like this, I highly suggest you do the same.

Things are going so well, I decided to push my luck and apply for more cards. Over the weekend, I applied for 4 more cards offering 0% balance transfers, a Chase, American Express, a WaMu card, and another Discover card. I heard back right away from WaMu (only a $1,000 limit ), I was rejected by American Express, and I’m still waiting from Chase and Discover. Looking back, I’m pretty sure I screwed this one up. My credit score right now is probably in the toilet. If I had done these applications when I originally started the arbitrage game, I’m sure I would have been approved, no problem. Now, I’m around a 60% debt to credit line ratio, and I have a few recent hard credit pulls in the last 3 months. To a credit card company, that’s a huge risk, and they’re unlikely to hand out a large credit limit, if they’ll even hand out a card at all.

The smart thing would have been to wait until my balances were lower and the old credit pulls had fallen off (at least 6 months). I guess I got a little impatient. Lucky for me, I’m not too worried about my credit score right now. I’m not planning any large purchases for at least another year, if not 2 or 3 more years. Even still, these inquiries will disappear in a few months, and as soon as I pay off the balance transfers, I’ll have a clean slate.

Then again, maybe I’ll get lucky and Chase and Discover will approve me. Who knows.

One more thing to note, the WaMu card I applied for did have a 0% balance transfer offer, but it also had free access to your FICO credit score. This alone, is worth applying for the card, and I’m really glad it’s the one card I did get approved for. Most companies will charge $10 a month or so to check your credit score, so I had to jump when I saw it for free. Now I can actually watch my credit score take it’s nose dive!

Last night, I decided to take advantage of the $50 sign up bonus that I talked about yesterday on a Citibank Savings Account. I don’t think there’s much harm in having too many savings accounts, and it’s hard to pass up a free $50.

Well, less than 12 hours later, when I was checking the Morning Deals on Consumerist, I found another promotion for the exact same Citibank savings account, this one with a $100 sign up bonus!! (Link: Citibank $100 sign up bonus) D’OH!

So by signing up last night, I made $50, but if I had waited until this morning, I could have made $100! What a cruel, cruel world. I sent Citibank a nice email telling them about my dilemma and asking if I was eligible for the $100 sign up bonus. Maybe I’ll get lucky and get another $50. Fingers are crossed.

I got an email this morning for Citibank Direct, asking me to open an online savings account with them. In doing so, I’d get a $50 sign up bonus. There are no fees, no minimum balances, and a 4.65% APY. Sounds great right?

My only concern is the number of accounts I have open right now. Currently, a checking and savings account at ING and two more checking and another savings over at WaMu. I think that’s even a little overboard.

So my question, then, is having too many banking accounts dangerous? Is there a magic number? Anybody know?

Then again, fifty bucks is fifty bucks, and I guess I could always close the account once I get the bonus.

A friend of mine recently complained because she received a $25 service charge from her bank for transferring money from her savings account to her checking account. Not many people know, but you are limited to 6 electronic withdrawals from a savings account per month. This is Federal Regulation D, not just a limit imposed by your bank. Transactions that count against the limit include Internet and telephone transfers. You can still use an ATM, go into a branch, or transfer money by mail as much as you want. Those transfers won’t count against your limit.

I hadn’t heard of these regulations either, until a few months ago. This is not something the banks do a good job of letting customers know about. I’ve had to be especially careful when shuffling money around between my different accounts to avoid penalties myself. Consider yourself warned!!!

My Mint has a couple other banking regulations you should know about, including Check 21 and reporting bank errors.

Despite spending more than I earned in April, I still managed to grow my net worth ever so slightly. This was due, in large part, to a great month in the stock market. My retirement accounts were up over 15% for the month (including contributions to my 401(k)). That in turn, gave me a 1% overall increase in Assets. I had my first two 0% balance transfer payments due, as well as another big car payment, so Liabilities are down 1% for the month. All told, net worth was up 3% for the month. A far cry from last month’s 14% growth, but still moving in the right direction. I have a feeling May will be a much better month.

Here’s my expenses for April.

Automobile : Gas $ 212.59
Automobile : Registration $ 244.00
Automobile : Car Payment $ 500.00
Automobile : Parking $ 28.30
Banking : Fees $ 7.25
Bills : Telephone $ 63.63
Bills : Electricity $ 54.43
Bills : Gas $ 34.34
Bills : Rent $ 652.00
Bills : Cable TV/Internet $ 89.81
Bills : Cell Phone $ 50.53
Business : Traveling $ 215.35
Food : Groceries $ 122.66
Food : Dining out $ 157.04
Food : Booze $ 158.16
Gambling $ 200.00
Healthcare : $ 10.00
Homeneeds : Clothing $ 201.25
Insurance : Auto $ 103.42
Leisure : Dodger Tickets $ 335.00
Miscellaneous $ 19.80
Total $ 3,981.21

Ouch. First month this year that I operated at a net loss. I had a few big purchases out of the ordinary. The Dodger tickets, at $335 was the biggest out-of-ordinary expense. I also had my car registration due ($244), and business trip related expenses ($215). The business trip will be reimbursed this month, however. Then of course, there’s the trip to Vegas, which set me back a couple hundred bucks between gambling losses and eating out all weekend. I also made a pretty big clothing purchase. I had a 20% off coupon for Old Navy, so I bought 9 new shirts, a pair of shorts, and a jacket.

My ‘Booze’ category was way too high last month. I’m glad I stopped including booze in the ‘Miscellaneous’ category, so I can really see how much I spend on alcohol. $158 in a month is obscene. Granted a bit of that was in Vegas, but still, I need to cut back. I’m making a goal this month to get that number under $50.

Looks like all my financial troubles are over!! I just recieved this email from GoDaddy, my domain registrar.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN®) recently agreed to reduce their Registrar Transaction Fee from $.25 to $.22. What does this mean for you?

Good news. You have been credited $.03/yr for each domain name you registered or renewed dating back to July 1, 2006 — $.06 has been placed into your Go Daddy® account.

6 whole cents!! If I invest my 6 cents in the stock market, averaging 10% return over the next 40 years, I’ll have built up $2.71!!

Can you even buy anything anymore for 6 cents???