Money

What Are Your Kids Gift Expectations?

I hear some people complain that they have to buy expensive things for their kids because it’s what they expect. Some don’t know what they are going to do this holiday season as times are getting tight. How are we going to get little Johnny the latest (insert expensive popular toy here)?!?

Here’s what I say – Don’t!!

Where do your kids get their expectations from? Do they get them from friends? From television? Those are influences but not the real source. Children get their expectations from their parents!!

If you make it a habit to buy your kids expensive gifts for every occasion then you are setting yourself up for financial trouble! The younger you start the worse it will be. If you are already buying expensive items when the child is a toddler what are you going to do when they get older? How about when they are in their teens?

It’s tough to tell kids they won’t be getting all the goodies they are used to. But if your spending is putting you in debt or you don’t have an adequate amount for savings and retirement then you better re-think your holiday spending plans! Make your kids understand that they won’t be getting as much this year.

But all their friends are getting it!! Hmm. Are their friends paying your bills? Are they putting money away for retirement. Are they making sure the mortgage is on time? I didn’t think so. Teach your child to take pride in who they are not what they have. This lesson will be valuable for their entire life!

And you better practice what you preach!! Your child’s expectations come from watching you as well. Don’t think you’re getting that new flat-screen TV or expensive cell phone while they don’t get the goods. Parents must set the example for their kids. We are not our stuff!!

Say that to yourself – We are not our stuff! It’s important. Get this into your mind set and teach it to your children, not just by explaining but by setting the example.

I’m not saying don’t buy any gifts. But watch what you buy for your kids. Yes, they love getting stuff. I know I did as a kid. But what is the child really getting out of it? Are they using and loving the gift? Not just for a day but for months, maybe years? Or did they say it was their favorite for a few days then it joined all their other stuff in the corner? Do your kids really appreciate the gift? If your always buying them expensive stuff then your kids will start to see you a the person who will get them stuff. Not for the person you are! Think about that.

Stop the cycle of consumerism that hurts us in the end. You don’t have to buy your kids everything they want. Let them love you as the great parent you are rather than the person who gets them stuff. They won’t hate you if you don’t get them all the hottest toys. If they say they do then think about the values you are teaching them. We all want to make our kids happy but we need them to grow up responsible too.

photo credit: Gaetan Lee

Not Having The Police At A Car Accident Can Cost You

Written by Glen Craig 25 Comments

As I mentioned in an earlier article, our new car got into an accident on our vacation driving down to Virginia. The weather had recently turned to rain. We were driving along the highway below the speed limit making sure to keep a safe distance from the car in front. Suddenly traffic slowed down so we did as well. Then I saw it coming in the rear-view mirror – BAMM!! We just got hit from behind. The force was enough to throw us forward. I moved to avoid the car in front but ended up clipping his fender. All three cars pulled off to the side of the road. Thank goodness no one was hurt! The kids were shaken up (heck, we were all shaken up) but we were OK. I got out and assessed the damage. Man I didn’t realize how bad we were hit. Back door was crunched inward. At first I couldn’t even open it. Our front has a small dent as well. The other two cars – scratches at best. It was an SUV Oreo and our poor mini van was the creamy middle.

Still a bit frazzled from the accident the other two drivers and I began to exchange automobile insurance information. The person who hit me was in a rush to leave. He didn’t think we needed to call the police since no one was hurt and we were exchanging info already. Something didn’t feel right about this to me. Thankfully, I listened to my Spidey sense and called the police. A few minutes later an officer arrived and took all of our information.

What A Police Officer Does At The Accident

The officer took all of our pertinent information and heard separate descriptions of what happened from each of us. This was good because the officer gave us each a Driver Information Exchange Report which listed car insurance information, driver’s license #, address, phone number, car description VIN, and more. After an accident it’s easy for a driver to forget to get a piece of information or write something down incorrectly. Getting this from a police officer helps to prevent that.

I didn’t know it at the time but you could be given a ticket for driving too close and causing an accident (at least where I was). This may have been one of the key reasons the driver who hit me wanted to leave. It ends up the officer gave him a written warning. This is very important in that it gives official evidence that the officer felt it was the driver’s fault for causing the accident! This will help in determining the fault for the insurance companies which will lead to me getting back my car insurance deductible from repairs on my accident claims (my deductible is $1000).

The officer filed a police report for the accident. The insurance companies will use this as well in determining the fault. Without getting a police report you run the risk of a driver changing his story after the fact and it becomes an issue of his word against yours. Again this will help in getting my deductible back.

Having an officer there helps keep everyone’s heads level. Things can get heated when there’s an accident. I’d rather have the officer do the peace keeping than worry about it myself. Also, I want to believe in the best in people but I don’t know the person who hit me from Adam. An officer can confirm that this isn’t a criminal. A little paranoid? Yes. Does it give me additional peace of mind at a stressful moment? Heck yeah!

As you can see calling the police was important. With the written warning and the police report the automobile insurance company should see that the fault was on the other driver. This will save me my insurance deductible of $1000. Had I not called it could possibly cost me that $1000!

photo credit: Mr Wabu

Booking A Hotel Through An Online Travel Site May Not Be Worth It

Written by Glen Craig 17 Comments

In planning our recent trip to Virginia Beach I discovered that using an online travel site isn’t always worth it. In fact they could be ripping you off!

We finally decided on going to Virginia Beach and we wanted to stay as close to the beach as possible. At the same time we really didn’t know much about the area. My wife and I scoured the various travel sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com, etc… Whenever we saw something interesting we checked it in Trip Advisor to see what kind of feedback people who stayed there had. We tried to find out what we could about the area and what was available. Because we waited so long to plan our trip many hotels were either booked on certain days or too expensive. Finally, through one of the sites (I won’t mention which), we found a decent hotel with a rate we were OK with paying.

Here’s where it gets interesting. So we found a good rate for a room. We discovered that for $10 more a night we could also get a Continental breakfast included. Ten dollars more a night to get the four of us going in the morning sounded like a good deal! Before I was able to reserve the room my wife, in her mighty wisdom, told me to check out the hotel’s site and maybe give them a call to see what they charge. Good thing she told me that. I checked the hotel site and I found that their rooms were the same price as the online travel site. Ok, no biggie. Then I discovered that the Continental breakfast was included in all the reservations!! The travel site was going to charge me $10 a night for something the hotel gave out for free! It gets better. We found that the hotel gives discounts to AAA members. I plugged in our membership card and was pleased to see that the room would be discounted another $18!

In all we saved $28 a night by going directly to the hotel’s site rather than booking through an outside travel site! Over five nights that’s a savings of $140.

I’m sure there are real great deals out there on these travel sites but this proves that you have to do your homework. Sometimes the best deals may be from the hotel itself!

photo credit: [charlie cravero]

We Did It, We Bought A New Car

Written by Glen Craig 7 Comments

We did it! We broke down and decided it was time for a new car. We bought a brand new 2008 Honda Odyssey EX. We picked it up last week and we love it so far! I feel a little guilty saying that since hey, a new car costs money, but I think we did it as cost-saving as we could.

See, we could have stuck with our 2004 Toyota Corolla, which was a great car. It had a relatively good number of miles on it and it ran well. Thing is, it was getting too small for our family. We’ve been getting by finding ways to fit everything into the trunk of the car on various outings. Shopping at BJ’s was always fun since we had to get things like diaper and wipes boxes into the trunk as well as the stroller (remember, we have two kids one of which is a toddler). On some days we got real close to not fitting everything. The other things was we really couldn’t fit any more people than the four of us. Maybe we could squeeze a friend of my daughter’s in but that was it. We wanted to be able to transport more people if we wanted (and hey, there’s always the possibility of more little ones too).

Let me show you what we did to keep costs down:

We traded in our Corolla. We considered keeping it but we didn’t need two cars. We were better off putting the car toward the cost of the Odyssey.

We researched and then researched some more and then shopped around. We checked Consumer Reports, Edmunds.com, the official Honda site, the Official Toyota site…We looked everywhere we could to make sure we understood what the dealer costs were and what prices we could expect to get for both the new car and our old car. With this information we shopped around until we found the best price from a dealer. In the end, after an odyssey of our own, we received a price that we were happy with (much less than MSRP and lower than dealer invoice).

We added some luxury but not the works. I wanted power side doors which put us up higher than the base model. After that we didn’t go for any other options. As much as we would have liked them we didn’t get the navigation system, the DVD player, the leather seats, etc… We looked at what we knew we needed and wanted and stuck with that.

We got a great financing deal. I know, buying a 2-3 year old car and paying for it in cash is what a lot of experts say is the best thing to do. We’ve had bad experiences with older cars already and we know we are going to use this car for as long as we are able (many, many years we hope!). We considered a used car but in the end we wanted new. One thing that helped decide was the fact that Honda is offering 0.9% financing right now (Toyota was offering 0% but we preferred the Honda overall). Financing for 0.9% is real close to free money (a great reason to make sure your credit score is good). So you know, we have enough put away that we could have paid the car off entirely but since the rate is so low we can keep the money in our ING Direct account and let it earn interest while we pay the fianancing. I did some quick calculations and our financing is costing us less than $300 while we could earn around $1800 keeping the money in our savings. For a used car the fianncing would have been much higher.

Our insurance will be lower. As an added bonus I found out that our insurance premiums will be lower since the Odyssey is considered a safer car.

Our vacation will be more local. We were undecided on what to do for vacation this year. We were strongly considering flying off somewhere that has Caribbean water. But now that we have a new car with more storage space we’re going to do a driving vacation and travel within a day or two’s distance and check out the sites. Yes gas is expensive now, but we’ll still be saving more than if we flew somewhere.

We have a little bit of buyer’s remorse knowing that we have a debt to pay off but we’re really happy to have gotten the car! We’ve already taken a couple of small trips and we plan to do some more (there’s a frugal list of things to do somewhere out there isn’t there?).

A car is a great big expense. But I think we purchased ours in a way that’s financially responsible.

There May Be Unclaimed Money Or Property Waiting For You

Written by Glen Craig 5 Comments

Did you know that you might have property or money waiting for you to be claimed?

I had heard about it but didn’t really understand what it was. Well, I recently came across the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. They provide a list of state department sites where you can find your state and check for unclaimed property. They also provide a link to MissingMoney.com which is a database of state unclaimed property records. ( I suggest you check both!).

“There’s no way any of that money is mine” you may be saying. You’d be surprised!

Here is a list of accounts that may have unclaimed money (from the NYS Office of the State Comptroller):

Savings Accounts
Checking Accounts
Uncashed Checks
Telephone/Utility Deposits
Rental Security Deposits
Wages
Insurance Benefits/Policies
Safe Deposit Box Contents
Mortgage Insurance Refunds
Stocks and Dividends
Mutual Funds
Certificates of Deposit
Trust Funds
Estate Proceed

Have you moved, opened an account and forgot about it, change utility providers and forget about the deposit, forget to cash a dividend check?

All of these are reasons money can go unclaimed. State laws require unclaimed funds to be turned over to the state after a set period of time (varies by state). This money sits with the state waiting to be claimed.

I was skeptical so I tried it out.

Ends up I have unclaimed funds for dividends I never cashed. Long ago my Grandmother bought us all a share of stock in our name. The dividend checks were never that big so I probably misplaced or lost it. I’ve since moved a number of times so the checks never caught up with me. The NYS site provides a form that needs to be notarized and sent back to claim the money. Check your state for exact details on claiming property.

So what are you waiting for? Go check to see if there’s money waiting out there for you!

photo credit: Gaetan Lee

Dealing With Financial Problems With A Loved One

Written by Glen Craig 13 Comments

There may come a time when a financial problem comes up between you and a loved one. Maybe it’s a late payment that runs up some fees. It could be an old debt that rears it’s ugly head again. Perhaps someone did a little too much damage with credit card spending? Whatever it is the issue will have to be addressed so a solution can be figured out.

Here are some things to consider when confronting your loved one about their financial management problems:

Don’t blame or accuse the other person for the problem. Arguing and blaming doesn’t help. When you lay blame and argue it’s like telling the other person that you’re right and they are wrong. It may be that’s the case but nobody likes to hear that. Start off a discussion like this and you immediately turn your loved one off to what you are saying. Remember the situation has already happened. The point now is to figure out how to solve it.

State the facts. Talk about what has actually happened. Try not to get your emotions involved. This means no name calling. It also means talking about the situation at hand and not bringing up any past discretion. The facts will help you find a resolution.

Talk to your loved one about how the problem arose. How did it get to this point? Ask what they think can be done to solve the problem. Offer your help. Suggest some ideas of your own as a solution. Assure your loved one that you are their for them and that you are in this together. This leads us to…

Take accountability for the problem with your loved one. “But it wasn’t my fault” you might say. Maybe not directly but by sharing in the responsibility you let your loved one know that you are there to help them. The fact that this person is a loved one makes their pain yours as well to some extent. Take that extra step with the olive branch and assure them that together you’ll figure out a solution.

Remember you want to open the person up to discussion. Getting into a financial mess is embarrassing for most. Your loved one probably knows they screwed up somehow so they don’t want to be reminded of how bad a blunder it was. Listen to them. Work on finding a way to both fix the problem at hand and prevent it from happening in the future.

Hopefully you don’t have many financial problems with loved ones in your life. If you come across any, these ideas should help you work things out.

photo credit: timsamoff

A CD Ladder Plan For Beginning Savers

Written by Glen Craig 13 Comments

a ladder Are you just starting off building up your savings? I’ve mentioned before that a great way to save is by putting money in a high yield savings account such as Capital One 360 Savings. A way to make a little more interest is to open a Certificate of Deposit, or CD for short.

What is a CD?

Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:

A certificate of deposit or CD is a time deposit, a financial product commonly offered to consumers by banks, thrift institutions, and credit unions.

CDs are similar to savings accounts in that they are insured and thus virtually risk-free; they are “money in the bank” (CDs are insured by the FDIC for banks or by the NCUA for credit unions). They are different from savings accounts in that the CD has a specific, fixed term (often three months, six months, or one to five years), and, usually, a fixed interest rate. It is intended that the CD be held until maturity, at which time the money may be withdrawn together with the accrued interest.

So if you are investing/buying a CD you want to make sure you don’t need that money for the length of it’s term (otherwise you will have to pay a penalty to cash it in).

Here’s a great way a beginning saver can get started with CD’s:

Figure out a monthly amount of money you know you won’t need for 12 months. Don’t be scared now. It can be a small amount like $10.

Log into your ING account and go to their products page. Click on CD’s and proceed to open up a $10 CD for a 12-month term. (If you can afford more by all means do so. Remember this is money you won’t touch for a year.)

Now every month do the same thing for a total of 12 months.

At the end of a year you will have 12 CDs worth more than $120 (imagine if you put more in each month?). If you can, re-invest the CDs as they mature. See if you can add to the amounts, again even if it’s only a few dollars.

“What have we done? Anyone can buy CDs!”, you may ask? Remember this is for a beginner who is starting to build up their savings. Here is what the beginning saver has accomplished:

This builds up a habit of saving. By putting the money in a CD we’re limiting the ability to take the money out (without a penalty at least). Once this habit is in place a beginning saver may have the discipline to expand their savings.
It creates a great sense of self-esteem for the saver. You get to see your CDs growing every month. How great is it to see a year’s worth of savings? Once a person realizes that saving is an achievable goal they will be more likely to continue!
You’re earning interest. Not only have you saved but you’re savings are growing too! You’re taking advantage of laddering.

Savings aren’t usually built overnight. But by saving bit by bit you will see your savings blossom over time!

photo credit: naama

Carnival Of Money Stories #58 – Dollar Coins Edition

Written by Glen Craig 22 Comments

Welcome to the 58th Carnival of Money Stories – Dollar Coins Edition. I’m very happy and honored to be hosting this week’s carnival as this is my first hosting experience. Have fun checking out the dollar coins…

I hope you enjoy!

The 1st United States Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year — a large sum in 1789. Washington, already wealthy, declined the salary, since he valued his image as a selfless public servant. At the urging of Congress, however, he ultimately accepted the payment. A dangerous precedent could have been set otherwise, as the founding fathers wanted future presidents to come from a large pool of potential candidates — not just those citizens who could afford to do the work for free.

Editor’s Picks

Lisa Spinelli presents Free Time or More Money-Which is it? posted at Greener Pastures: Personal Finance. Money is always good but time can be worth more.

Ryan Taylor presents My Portfolio Dropped 8% – How’d Yours Hold Up? posted at Millionaire Money Habits. We have to think of the long run when looking at our investments. I can relate having seen my 401(k) in the red.

Pinyo presents Why I Am Glad The Economic Stimulus Check Is Coming Early posted at Moolanomy. The Economic Stimulus checks are coming just in time for Pinyo!

Mike presents The economics of biking posted at Living the Cheap Life. Saving money by biking to work…I love it! I wish I were closer to my job. I’d love to bike to work but I’m too far away.

Dough Roller presents Do You ‘Steal’ Money From Your Spouse? posted at The Dough Roller | Smarter Money Management. Hmm…I guess there is a fine line between borrowing and stealing depending on how you look at it. Either way it couldn’t hurt to be more communicative with your spouse.

John Adams, Jr. (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was the second President of the United States (1797–1801). He also served as America’s first Vice President (1789–1797). He was defeated for re-election in the “Revolution of 1800” by Thomas Jefferson. Adams was also the first President to reside in the newly-built White House in Washington, D.C., which was completed in 1800.

Finance Tips 101 presents The Pros And Cons Of Personal Loans posted at Finance Tips 101.

RC presents The Health Savings Account (HSA) and Can I Do Better Than a Health Insurance Company? posted at Think Your Way to Wealth.

SingleGuyMoney presents Remembering How Lucky I Am posted at Single Guy Money.

His opposition to the Bank of the United States was fierce: “I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

NtJS presents My Financial Beating: Episode 1 posted at not the jet set.

GradGirl presents Money Story: Graduation Announcements posted at This Writer’s Wallet.

paidtwice presents Healthcare Feel Like Throwing Money Down A Drain? Good, Sometimes. posted at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already….

James Madison

As a leader in the first Congresses, he drafted many basic laws and was responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution (said to be based on the Virginia Declaration of Rights), and thus is also known as the “Father of the Bill of Rights“.^[3] As a political theorist, Madison’s most distinctive belief was that the new republic needed checks and balances to limit the powers of special interests, which Madison called factions.^[4]

Phil for Humanity presents Gambling Advice << Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity.

Mitchel Harad presents Fun at the Auction posted at Holy Cash Cow.

Amy presents Settling in for the Summer: May Goals posted at My Daily Dollars.

James Monroe

Monroe is probably best known for the Monroe Doctrine, which he delivered in his message to Congress on December 2, 1823. In it, he proclaimed the Americas should be free from future European colonization and free from European interference in sovereign countries’ affairs. It further stated the United States’ intention to stay neutral in European wars and wars between European powers and their colonies, but to consider any new colonies or interference with independent countries in the Americas as hostile acts toward the United States.

Larry Russell presents The Financial Services Industry is Still the Largest S&P 500 Sector – Even after the Collapse of its Stock Values posted at THE SKILLED INVESTOR Blog.

GBlogger presents Success Stories: Retired At 51 With Over $1.4 Million—And Staying Aggressive posted at CAN I GET RICH ON A SALARY.

Madison presents Create Your Own Dollar Plan: Step 2 posted at My Dollar Plan.

John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was a diplomat, politician, and the sixth President of the United States (March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829). His party affiliations were Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig. John Quincy Adams was the son of the second United States President John Adams and Abigail Adams. He is most famous as a diplomat involved in many international negotiations, and for formulating the Monroe Doctrine. As president he proposed a grand program of modernization and educational advancement, but was unable to get it through Congress.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Dear IRS posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

Todd presents I’m Thinking About Turning Down a Promotion At Work posted at HarvestingDollars.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents How Prosper Financed My Trip and Sundry P2P Lending Thoughts posted at The Digerati Life.

Andrew Jackson

He was a polarizing figure who dominated American politics in the 1820s and 1830s. His political ambition combined with the masses of people shaped the modern Democratic Party.^[1] Renowned for his toughness, he was nicknamed “Old Hickory.” As he based his career in Tennessee, Jackson was the first President primarily associated with the frontier.

FIRE Finance presents $6000! Save Your Hard Earned Money! posted at FIRE Finance.

Raymond presents Get A Free Extended Warranty By Purchasing With A Credit Card posted at Money Blue Book.

Dorian Wales presents How to Fortify Your Job: 10 valuable (and challenging) Tips posted at The Personal Financier.

Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862), nicknamed Old Kinderhook, was the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. Before his presidency, he served as the eighth Vice President (1833-1837) and the 10th Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson. He was a key organizer of the Democratic Party, a dominant figure in the Second Party System, and the first president who was not of English, Irish, Welsh, or Scottish descent. He was the first president to be born an American citizen^[2] (his predecessors were born before the revolution)

BeThisWay presents My Economic Stimulus Check Didn?t Arrive When Promised! posted at Are You Going To Be This Way The Rest of The Time I Know You?.

Shawna presents Where?s my economic stimulus check?!? How to check the status of your stimulus check posted at Bumble…….

Ken Clark, CFP presents Repaying Student Loans: An Overview of Student Loan Repayment Plans posted at Saving for College – About.com.

Statue of Liberty

There are 354 steps inside the statue and its pedestal. There are 25 windows in the crown which comprise the jewels beneath the seven rays of the diadem. The tablet which the statue holds in her left hand reads, in Roman numerals, “July 4, 1776″ the day of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

M.B. presents My First Mystery Shopping Experience posted at Be Thrifty Like Us.

joseanes presents Be Open About Your Financial Mistakes posted at Money And Investing.

The Financial Blogger presents Take The Power Back Part 2 posted at The Financial Blogger.

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed. Please make sure to read through all of these great articles. Check back at Carnival of Money Stories to keep up with future editions.

Until next time,

FFB

pictures and quotes from Wikipedia

15 Things To Do With Your Economic Stimulus Check

Written by Glen Craig 23 Comments

The government Stimulus checks started going out on April 28th. If you are expecting one you should start looking for it in May (here’s a post listing the dates).

So what are you going to do with the extra money? Here are a list of ideas for using your stimulus check:

Pay off credit cards – If you have any credit card debt the stimulus check will be a great way knock some of that out! Paying off the debt gives you an instant return in savings of whatever you would have paid in interest fees. Psychologically, you will help in getting the debt monkey off your back.

Contribute to a Roth IRA – You can take your money and put it into your Roth IRA. For 2008 the contribution limit is $5000.

Start an emergency fund – If you don’t already have some sort of emergency fund (three to six months expenses seems to be the conventional wisdom) then your stimulus check is a good way to start one. Even if you have one you can use the money to increase your fund. A great place to start one is with ING Direct (you can even get a $25 bonus by opening your account with $250).

Contribute to a 529 college savings plan – You can use the money to help save for your kid’s education by putting the money in a 529 plan. Not only do you help save for college but you might get a tax break as well depending on your home state’s plan.

Pre-pay your mortgage – Take the money and make additional payments to your mortgage. By making additional payments you will own your home faster and pay less in interest. Just make sure the payments go towards the loan principle and not next month’s payment (also check that your lender will accept pre-payments without fees or penalties).

Buy a gift card – Many retailers are waiting to get their hands on your dough. Some are offering incentives to buy gift cards with your stimulus checks. It seems Kroger’s and Sears are offering 10% bonuses if you buy a gift card with your check. But be careful though and make sure there are no additional fees and know that you will actually use the card (and if the store goes out of business your gift card may be worthless).

Go on vacation – You may have been planning to do this anyway so here is a good way to fund the vacation. Go and do something that will be a great experience for the family that you will all remember.

Improve the house – If there’s something you’ve needed to improve on your home, such as a furnace, you can use your stimulus check to pay for it (or at least help). Other options could be new paint job, carpet, furniture, appliances, etc…

Car maintenance – Have you been putting off a car repair? Need new brakes? New tires? Your stimulus money can fund it. If your car is about to go kaput your stimulus check could help pay for a new car (or a good new used car).

Learn to invest – Do some research and take the money and start investing. Companies such as Sharebuilder and Zecco offer low-fee investing. You have to do your homework with this option but it might be just enough money to start investing but not so much that you will be crazy worrying if you lose it. If you invest through Sharebuilder you can buy partial shares of Berkshire Hathaway B class shares. I hear that Warren Buffett is pretty good at investing.

Pay off student loans – If you have high interest student loans then your stimulus check can be a great way to help pay your student loans off. Just like with credit cards paying off your high interest student loans give you the instant return in savings of what you would have paid in interest.

Have a nice evening out – Take your spouse out to a really great meal. Get babysitting and go to that great restaurant you wanted to try. Go see that new show that everyone’s talking about. Make an experience you will always remember.

Get physically fit – The stimulus check should be enough to pay for a year’s gym membership (or more than a year). Use the stimulus check as a catalyst to get in shape and make your life healthier. Not sure about a gym? Find a class such as yoga or martial arts to join. Not into that? Buy a new bike and go riding. Or get yourself some good running sneakers and running attire. Join your local running club and enter a few small races. You never know, you may one day run a marathon.

Go to school – Use your stimulus check to enroll in a college course or two. This can be toward a degree or just continuing education. Hey, you can take a personal finance course. Maybe learn a second language?

Do nothing – This is the easiest of them all. Put the money in your savings account and forget about it. You don’t have to spend it or find any particular purpose for it. It doesn’t have to burn a hole in your pocket. One day you might find a good use for it but for now it adds to your savings.

Personally, we’re closer to the Do Nothing suggestion. Our stimulus check will come via direct deposit right into our ING account. We have no specific plans for the money so it will be added into our savings. Our check may pay parts of many of the suggestions or for none of them. Either way it will earn interest until it finds a home somewhere else.

Do you have any other ideas for using the economic stimulus check?

photo by Argenberg

7 Ways to Get Rich Quick

Written by Glen Craig 49 Comments

These are trying times for our economy. The money in my 401(k) is going nowhere, my high-yield savings isn’t yielding very high, Bill Gates isn’t the richest in the world, the economy basically evaporated…

What’s a person to do?!?

I propose seven ways for you to get rich quick!

Stock speculation

We all know money can be made on the stock market. You just have to invest in the right companies. Find lots of small companies that look good. Big companies weren’t always big – they started small. Find an emerging industry and invest there. Surely professional companies will grow and as they do so will your stock price. Check this out – as recent as 2003 stocks returned over 28%!!

Buy property and flip it

Rates have dropped. Housing prices have dropped. Now is the time to start reaping the rewards of of the housing bubble burst! Do you own a home now? Leverage that home with a home equity loan and buy up what properties you can. Housing prices will go up again and you will see the green!

Insider trading

We all know someone on Wall Street in the stock market today, don’t we? Think they keep everything secret? Why do you think they are rich? Next time you run into one of your Wall Street buds hit him up for some tips. These guys work with stocks all day so they know where they are moving. Maybe they can tell you the best trades in penny stocks (those always seem to go up, right?). Use those tips and buy what you can!

Gambling

Ever played blackjack? Craps? These games have some of the best odds in the casino! You can learn all sorts of different playing strategies online to help you win. Heck, there’s even a movie about some MIT students who beat the casinos with blackjack. Go get to the casinos before everyone sees the movie and has the same idea!

Blog

Anyone can blog. Really. Look at me, I’m no Dostoevsky and you’re reading this. There are so many ways you can make money with a blog. Just throw some ads on your site, write some posts, and voila! Instant cash! Make sure to link back to me when you start up!

Tax return

List anything you can as a deduction. We can all find some way to justify an expense. The more you put the better. The money you donated to the orphanage? That’s like having a whole bunch of dependents to declare! Get your tax return to the point where the government is giving you back a huge return. When the money comes in you can try the other six tips here. Oh, don’t have your accountant do it. Do it yourself. You know what your deductions are.

Win the lottery

Someone has to win. Yes the odds are bad. But every ticket you get improves those odds. What if you took your tax refund or stimulus check and bought lottery tickets? There’s bound to be a winner in there.

What’s that?………Hold on one sec……uh-huh…ok.

My lawyer and accountant just barged in on me. They’re telling me I might have gotten a few facts wrong.

Umm, lets see…stock speculation’s not a great idea. Speculation without real research is actually closer to gambling than investing.

But I like gambling!

Cross off gambling too. Something about if it were so easy to do well with it then everyone would do it. And that casinos have the best odds in the long run. And those MIT kids were an exception that didn’t last.

Remember those 2003 returns? Here are the returns for the three years before 2003: 2000 -9.03%, 2001 -11.85%, 2002 -21.98%.

Ohh.

Past returns do not guarantee future returns. And lots of small companies fail or never make the successful leap to become a large corporation.

On the same note, there’s no telling where the bottom is in the housing market. Many thought it would never drop and here we are. Buying now could be ok if you’re looking to buy your own house but otherwise you’re back to speculating. Leveraging what you own could be a sure-fire way to end up foreclosed.

My lawyer mentioned that insider trading is illegal.

Ouch. Ok, don’t do that! My accountant chimed in saying that just because someone trades a stock it doesn’t mean they research the fundamentals of any of the companies they trade. That’s good to know. So watch out for any stock tips too. Do your own research!

I just checked my advertiser accounts for this blog. There’s a few cents in there but nothing to live off of. I might have jumped the gun saying that a blog was instant cash. You can make money with a blog but I it takes persistence and hard work and even then it could fail.

Nope, not a way to get rich quick.

That looks funny!

My accountant and lawyer are jumping up and down pointing to Tax Return. Wha? oh.

They are highly against putting anything fraudulent on your tax return. There’s this thing called an audit which is not something you want to go through. Make sure your return is correct and if you have questions seek out a professional accountant. Otherwise, you can find yourself with a whole bunch of income tax problems that need a team of tax attorneys.

Can I keep my lottery tickets at least? I can? Oh, but odds are I’m just giving money to the state? Even though someone wins the odds are very much against winning. Better off saving the money.

Do people sometimes get rich quick?

Yeah, it happens. But it’s far more rare than you might think. Rather than spend your time on some get rich quick scheme, put your energy into a legitimate way to earn money. Work hard at what you do. Find ways to make money on the side. Save. Invest. Create something of value to people. Save more than you spend. Be honest in your work and to yourself.