October 2006
Monthly Archive
Free Money From Chase? I’ll Take it!
Posted by miller on 31 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: Philosophy, Quick Money
I opened up a piece of mail from Chase (I have a Chase Rewards credit card) the other day only to find a cute little $15 check for me. The enclosed letter explained how the check was my gift, but that by cashing it, I was enrolling myself in the Chase Fraud Detector.
The Quitter Vs. the Non-quitter (part 2)
Posted by miller on 31 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: Personal Finance
In continuation to my previous post, a friend of mine made the point that my numbers depended on the initial salary of the person in question. This is true for the example I gave, though there is a more generalized result that does not.
A Little-known Difference between Fixed Rate Mortgages and Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Posted by miller on 30 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: Housing/Mortgages
Lots of people have their opinions on which is better: an adjustable rate mortgage or a fixed rate mortgage. Some perfer the lower rate of an ARM. Others perfer the certainty of a fixed rate mortgage. Whichever loan you choose, a common trick people play with their mortgages is to pay a little extra each month or year. What not a lot of people known is that how those extra payments are treated is different for the two types of loans.
The Salary Question: The Quitter Vs. the Non-quitter
Posted by miller on 28 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: Personal Finance
I work in an industry where it is pretty well known that if you want to make money, you need to jump companies. In fact, I heard this about my company before I even started working for them! Well, for me and my group of friends, that first round of “QUIT QUIT QUIT QUIT!!!” is happening now.
It’s so HARD to Save for Retirement! Well, Sure it is!
Posted by miller on 15 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: Retirement
So over the last few years, I keep hearing about how hard it is going to be to retire. I keep hearing how you need to put away so much money, and how you really need to start now (I’m in my mid twenties) if you even want a chance. I keep hearing about how it was so much easier for my grandparents, who had pensions and could rely on social security. But despite all these, I believe the largest difference between my grandparents’ retirement and my retirement is another well known fact — people are living longer these days.
Redeeming My I-Bonds
Posted by miller on 14 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: Investing
Almost exactly one year ago, I purchased $250 worth of i-bonds. This weekend, I redeemed it for $260.40. The initial goal of this purchase wasn’t so much to make money ($250 is relatively small), but rather to explore how i-bonds work. In that sense, this purchase was a success.
