Bare necessities. If you are ever in Manila/PHL and looking to get a Prepaid mobile line for emergency and/or to just communicate around the islands, this might get you on the right track.
I did some research with Globe and their “GoSakto” make-your-own combos; ~P500/month for some calls and unlimited texting ain’t bad (P300 only if 1,000 of text). I’ll be able to afford more cronuts now!
Aaron Patzer of Mint.com states the “4 good habits that can make the difference between going broke or building up your net worth each month”:
Save money
Avoid debt
Invest
Don’t lose it
Though only 4, it takes a while to be in the practice of starting them. Upholding them is a different story. To do that, I think his recent write-up, 12 Steps to Financial Fitness, is a good guideline to help attain those 4 good habits in the long run.
We’ve all been asking/telling ourselves: “damn, I can use some extra cash right about now.” Well, your prayers and requests have been answered as the Government will soon be sending some dough your way:
A. The Treasury Department will make payments starting in early May. Early filers, especially those who choose direct deposit, will get their payments first.
If the IRS finishes processing your return by April 15, you will most likely get your payment based on this schedule. If you choose direct deposit, this means your payment will arrive on May 2, May 9 or May 16. If you do not choose direct deposit, checks will be mailed between mid-May and mid-July. For this initial batch of stimulus payments, the payment date will be based on the last two digits of your Social Security Number. [Updated 3/19/08]
But be smart about with what you do with it—or, just save it. To give you some more info on what this whole ordeal is about, you may check out the following:
I finally came to stumble upon this myself. Anyways… if you haven’t heard or seen yet (especially for BofA members), Keep the Change, the new program developed by Bank of America lets you save money in a weird way.
From what I read, it’s pretty much a way for them to get you to keep using your BofA Debit Card. I recall that every debit card transaction from BofA assesses a fee of $0.35–0.50. In terms of the program, you pretty much get charged to the nearest dollar. Lets say your purchase total (from your debit card) comes out to $8.75. BofA will charge you $9. The remaining $0.25 will then be automatically transferred to your Savings, and matched by BofA. The matching will be 100% for the first 3 months in the program, then 5% thereafter.
I don’t know to what extent this might be a plus. But for the first 3 months, it’s way worth it I’d say. I just don’t know about the 5% thereafter. However, as commenters over at Strange Brand generally concluded about the program, it’s probably better to just save in whole rather than being opted in the program.
Other blog posts regarding this, can be seen over at Avalon Star and Bargaineering. Its just weird that I never saw the BofA banner about the program. It’s been on the very top of their homepage for the past couple of weeks. Maybe it’s because I just use the BofA site to check out my accounts, transfer money, and/or pay bills.
Anyways, let me know if you guys and gals are on the program or at least thinking about it. I’m very interested in saving money, as well as getting FREE money for that instance. 100% matching sounds good but man oh man, 5% thereafter… even ING Direct 3% (plus) sounds better than this.
While talking about ING Direct’s increased interest rate (i.e. 3.3% from 3.0%):
me (10:43:26 PM): didn’t you want my financial advisor’s contact info? juan (10:44:38 PM): im good for now, i want to start saving some money before investing
me (10:45:02 PM): ummm thats an oxymoron
