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Week of June 12 |
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Friday, June 16, 2006
Count Your Dust Bunnies—and Your
Blessings
T.G.I.F.! It’s
finally Friday, so let’s have a little fun. Yesterday, I
recommended online bill-paying services as a way to avoid pesky
late-payment fees. Well, one of the most popular pages on this site
is our list of Top 20 Money Songs—or what we like to call
“Music You Can Pay Your Bills To.” If you’re not
comfortable with the idea of automating your bill payments online,
here’s another approach: Set aside some quiet time once every week,
either in the morning or in the evening. Brew a cup of green tea
(the color of money) or coffee, put on a play list of those money
songs and get in touch with your dough (and yourself) in a calm,
quiet, no-stress atmosphere.
The
idea for the list of money songs came about when I overheard a very
ambitious, focused co-worker describing to someone else in the
ladies’ room (isn’t that where most office secrets are spilled?) how
she’d gotten into the habit of getting up an hour before anyone else
in her busy house, just to sit quietly, listen to music, pay her
bills and plan her day. It probably was the secret of her success
(and she has become very successful). Doing this on a regular
basis is better than yoga or meditation to calm you down, because it
gives you a sense of taking control of your money and your life.
Here’s another tip for getting that check in the mail on time: Use
the calendar that comes built into your computer’s e-mail system to
set up alerts at least a week in advance of each bill’s due date.
Most original Contest of the
Month: This one’s tailor-made for working moms.
American
Standard, the company that makes heating and air conditioning units,
and bath and kitchen fixtures, is sponsoring a “Dust Bunny Challenge
Contest.” They’re looking for “the biggest, baddest collection of
dust bunnies in the country . . . ”. You know what they mean, “those
unwanted piles of dust, pet hair and other particles” that make
themselves at home in the corners and under the beds of our houses.
Enter the challenge by submitting one
color photo of your dust bunny collection, along with a 100-word
essay explaining what causes your dust bunnies and why you don’t
like them, and you could win a $15,000 grand prize package
including—listen up, ladies—monthly house-cleaning service for a
year! Oh yes, and a complete home comfort system, too.
The deadline is June 30, so check under
your beds, then go to
http://www.americanstandardair.com/dustbunny/ for more
information. What I want to know is: what do you call a
gathering of dust bunnies?
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Thursday, June 15, 2006
It’s
Real Simple!
We’re all
looking for ways to simplify our busy lives. Isn’t that why the
magazine Real Simple took off almost as soon as it hit
newsstands? Well, handling financial affairs has gotten real simple,
thanks to the Internet, by making it possible to automate everything
from saving money to paying bills. If you’re not taking advantage of
automated saving and bill-payment plans, do yourself a favor and
look into them.
Paying your bills on time is the best way to protect your credit
score and avoid those
outrageous late-payment fees from eating into your budget.
Don’t you just hate
yourself whenever you miss getting a check in the mail on time and
then see an extra $29—or whatever your card currently charges—added
onto your balance? I know I do.
Start by asking your bank if it has a bill-payment plan. Some offer
them free of charge to certain qualified customers. If not, compare
prices of such companies as
www.paytrust.com and
www.checkfree.com. For more on the ease of Internet bill payment
systems and what to watch out for, read
“Why Do Women Like Online Banking So Much?” written by
Internet guru Mr. Modem, a k a Richard Sherman, on this site.
Similarly, saving money is made truly pain-free when you set up an
automatic deposit from your bank account or paycheck to a savings
account once a week or month. Two online banks,
www.emigrantdirect.com and
www.ingdirect.com (whose automated mutual fund purchases I
mentioned yesterday), are good places to stash your cash. Because of
their lower operating costs, Internet banks can afford to offer
higher interest rates. But you don’t have to limit yourself to
online accounts. Your payroll department can arrange to deposit a
specified amount directly into any linked savings account of your
choice, on or off line. However you do it, you only have to do it
once—that’s the beauty of automating things—and you’re not giving up
control; you still have the power to step in and stop payments, or
change the amount you save, any time you want to.
Deal of the Week:
Online legal-services site
www.LegalZoom.com is offering summertime savings of $10 off any
purchase made between now and June 30. If you’ve been thinking about
drawing up a will (how many of us put that off?), now may be
the time to finally cross it off your to-do it. A standard last will
and testament, normally priced at $99 on Legal Zoom, is currently
listed at the special price of $69. Then just enter SUMMER at check
out to claim your additional $10 savings.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Time to Stock Up?
Unnerved by the
rumors of inflation, the stock market has been skittish this week,
with the major indexes posting significant losses. If you own and
trade individual stocks, that fact might make you more than a little
uneasy. But if, as is the case with most of us, your stocks are held
within mutual funds within 401(k)’s, there’s not much to worry about
or do. Just sit tight. You’re in it for the long haul and what goes
down eventually defies the law of gravity and climbs back up again.
Besides, because mutual funds are a diverse stew of stocks, if one
or two fall in value that generally isn’t enough to hurt the value
of your investment.
I used to dabble in the stock market,
owning shares of stocks of several tech companies that I felt would
amount to something. I was right: one particular stock shot through
the roof. Instead of selling, I held on, waiting to see how high it
would go. You guessed it: it took a dive, and I eventually took a
loss. Now I stick to mutual funds. If you’re maxed out on your
401(k) and want to put a little more money to work for you earning
the kind of interest you can make in the stock market, now might be
the time to pick up some good deals. The Internet savings bank ING
Direct has just made it a snap for you to do that.
The
company offers nine “Orange” investment funds, from conservative to
aggressive in their mix. A prospectus for each can be downloaded
online. If you see one you like, you can sign up for automatic
periodic withdrawals from your bank account. Best of all: no minimum
investment is required. By buying shares over time—let’s say you
have $50 a month automatically withdrawn from you bank account to
purchase shares in your chosen fund—you take advantage of something
called “dollar cost averaging.” In other words, because you buy some
shares when their price is up and some when the price is down, the
average cost of your shares will tend to be lower than the
average market price per share over the time that you are investing.
Click on over to
www.ingdirect.com for more information.
In
the Did You Know Department: What do working parents in Canada’s
Quebec province have that working parents in the U.S. don’t? Answer:
Government-subsidized day care. For a mere $7 a day, any child not
old enough for kindergarten can attend a day care center, making
parents’ lives much easier. Read a contrarian (male) view of this
enlightened policy in The New York Times by
CLICKING HERE.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006
A Temporary Band-Aid for Those
Without Health Coverage
Danielle, a
former Making Bread
intern, has just graduated from a Masters program and is looking for
her first full-time, real-world job. She called me recently to
update me on her search and to explain why she decided to turn down
a recent offer: no health insurance.
The
lack of health benefits can be a deal breaker for those of you
looking for your first job. But if you are offered one that has
everything else going for it—a foot in the door of your dream
profession, a decent starting salary, room for growth, and
co-workers whom you respect and who can teach you a thing or two—you
might consider taking the job and purchasing short-term health
insurance to cover yourself in the meantime. Short term insurance
can last anywhere from a 30 days to a year—enough time to advance
within the company to a level that might offer health benefits or to
find a job at another company that does offer coverage.
Short-term health insurance is also a
useful band-aid for people between jobs who don’t have or can’t
afford COBRA coverage and for new employees whose health coverage
doesn’t kick in until a probationary period is over. It can cost as
little as $25 or $30 a month, depending on deductible, where you
live and other factors, and in most cases comes in under $100 a
month. Covering emergency care, prescription drugs, intensive care,
lab work, x-rays, ambulance fees and hospital stays, it offers
affordable protection in the event that you (or a spouse or
dependent) fall ill or have a medical emergency.
Visit
www.ConsumerBenefits.net or
www.gradmed.com to compare plans, get quotes and apply on line.
Deal
of the Day: Soccer moms looking for an official 2006 FIFA World Cup
soccer ball to give to their superstars can find them on
Amazon.com for as little as $19.99. For travel deals to see
the finals in Berlin on July 9, visit
www.orbitz.com. Purchase game tickets and research other
attractions and activities in the uber-cosmopolitan German capital
at
http://www.worldcupblog.org/travel-to-germany/berlin.php.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Monday, June 12, 2006
Hydrate, Exfoliate, Consolidate!
"Hydrate. Then exfoliate. Then moisturize, and then
exercise, and then floss." That was Ellen DeGeneres’s advice to
graduates of Tulane University in a surprise appearance during
commencement ceremonies last month. Her remarks were delivered in a
terry cloth robe, because, as she deadpanned, “They told me
everybody would be wearing robes.”
Great practical
advice. Better real-world advice is delivered in the following
article,
“Advice to All You Graduates: Let’s Start with That Daily Latte…,”
which appeared in The New York Times on Saturday. To help you
understand your options and the consequences of your financial
choices, the writer, Damon Darlin, recommends the calculators
featured on
www.hughchou.org by self-described geek Hugh Chou. If you don’t
believe the money you drop on that daily grande soy caramel
macchiato can make a difference in your financial future (while
packing pounds on your hips; check out
www.starbucks.com for the calorie count on one of those
addictive concoctions), try Chou’s “Break the Starbucks Habit”
calculator. The same holds true for bottled water, lottery tickets,
chewing gum, Snapple or any other get-me-through-my-day habit trap
we fall into. Every little choice we make has a ripple effect.
Along with encouraging you to make your own coffee and learn to
cook, Darlin urges grads to save money and protect their credit.
Yes, you’ve heard it all before—but do you want to learn the hard
way that it’s all true?
With
an average $20,000 in student loans hanging over graduates’ heads
when they leave school, not meeting that obligation every month will
be one of the biggest threats to their credit scores. Make it easy
on yourself by consolidating all of your student loans to a
locked-in rate as low as 4.75 percent, if you can. The deadline to
consolidate is June 30. Parents can consolidate PLUS loans any time.
With the Fed hinting at rising interest rates to come, it’s probably
worth your effort. Visit
www.salliemae.com for more information. You don’t even have to
take off your terry cloth robe—or fuzzy slippers!
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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If you like the blog, you’ll love the book.
For more savvy
finance advice, buy
“Making Bread: The
Ultimate Financial Guide for Women Who Need Dough,”
by Gail Harlow and Elizabeth Lewin, available on
Amazon.com and at your local bookstore |
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