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From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 10, 2020 at 9:55 am ET
Mother’s Day is tomorrow. Of course you already knew that. Since I already wrote my Mother’s Day post, I thought I’d share some great Mother’s Day songs with you. I did a little quick research and found “Mother Mother” by Tracy Bonham’s and “Mother” by Danzig. On second thought, let’s just scrap the cuddly song idea and get onto the links.
Over on my sister site, I wrote about the great value that I find in Taco Bell’s healthy Fresco menu.
Did you know that just by getting in shape you can save yourself from going under?
Plan Ahead ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 9, 2020 at 4:33 pm ET
The price of stamps goes up an entire penny on Monday. If you use a lot of stamps you may consider buying 100 of the Forever Stamps at $41. This will save $1 vs. buying them next week. I know a great many people that will consider this. Some of them will use 20 minutes of their and 80 cents of gas to save that dollar.
I just got back from the post office, I had some other errands to run. I asked the clerk if people were buying more Forever Stamps. She said that ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 9, 2020 at 6:11 am ET
Local cable has been running a television commercial that simply rips my heart out. A young girl around eight goes into a jewelry store with her dad and her bright pink piggy bank. The dad helps her pick out some jewelry for mom and the commercial ends with everyone smiling and happy. Even though it’s [...] ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 8, 2020 at 11:03 am ET
I’m the assistant to the travelling secretary. I’m going on the road trips with them! I’ll be on the plane… I’m working in Yankee Stadium! This is a dream, I’m busting, Jerry, I’m busting! — George Costanza
I’m excited… like George I’m busting. A friend and I have a business idea that we think simply can’t fail. Like of the best ideas out there, it just fell into our lap. We’ve sat down and crunched the numbers about 30 different ways and each time, it’s profitable… very profitable. Our costs could potentially be low. The value ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 7, 2020 at 12:10 pm ET
The recently expired merger offer from Microsoft to Yahoo got me thinking about two things: what went wrong and what can we learn from it. On a lot of levels the merger makes a lot of sense. Microsoft needs to ramp up their search capabilities to compete with Google. Acquiring Yahoo would give them a boost in the right direction. There are a lot of other parts to Yahoo’s business that would also help Microsoft’s cause. So why isn’t Microhoo up and battling against Google today?
Corporate Culture Clash
Nearly ten years ago, I worked for an ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 6, 2020 at 2:55 pm ET
Chrysler is touting a new promotion that promises to make $2.99 gas available to Americans who buy a new car from them. The timing couldn’t be better. With gas averaging over $4.00 in my area of San Francisco, I can personally say that I’ve witnessed some concerned people. So is Chrysler’s promotion a good deal?
Chrysler’s Offer in Detail
Chrysler is offering a gas credit card. Use the card where you buy gas and your statement will reflect the $2.99 rate (Chrysler pays the difference so the gas station still gets their money). The offer is only ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 6, 2020 at 8:55 am ET
There are lot of metaphors in the world of personal finance. If you want to be a personal financial guru, you have to have one. Robert Kiyosaki has his Rich Dad, Poor Dad. David Bach has the Latte Factor. Dave Ramsey has his Debt Snowball.
David Bach’s Latte Factor is the practice of looking at the small things you spend your money on every day and see whether you could redirect that spending to yourself. Dave Ramsey defines the Debt Snowball as when you pay off the smallest debt first to create the greatest momentum in ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 5, 2020 at 1:55 pm ET
Last week, I finally got around to starting up my SmartyPig account again. You may recall that I had trouble when I tried in the past. However, the questions their verification partner asked me about my financial accounts did not match what I knew to be true of my financial accounts. SmartyPig promptly mailed the documents necessary for me to be manually verified and once I got around to filling it out, set me up right away. I’d have to give them an A+ for customer service, but then I might not be the typical customer ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 5, 2020 at 8:55 am ET
Happy Cinco de Mayo! In a few hours from now I’ll be having tacos and maybe a cerveza. I draw the line at doing a hat dance. Grab yourself some nachos and chew on these articles about P2P lending…
Moolanomy spectulates why Lending Club has stopped taking new lenders. Interesting thought that “If they are successful, I believe they will emerge as the industry leader.” I think Prosper already has a head start on Lending Club, so I think they’ll just emerge as a stronger #2 than before.
Not to be outdone, Cash Money Life speculates [...] ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 4, 2020 at 3:10 pm ET
A couple of weeks ago, a friend turned me onto Harry’s Hofbrau a local chain of restaurants. It turns out that in San Francisco “Hofbrau” means more of a carvery. It might somewhat similar to a more upscale version of Boston Market. It’s a little like a cafeteria where you just go down the line and construct your meal from all the options in front of you. The food is amazing, but the prices are even more outstanding. Last night, I had sirloin tips in a mushroom sauce on bed of noodles with a roll ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 2, 2020 at 12:17 pm ET
It’s time once again to update my Alternative Income. For the first time in a few months, I actually made more money that the previous month.
For the first time in quite awhile, it makes sense to break out the revenue numbers vs. the net gain. My revenue jumped from $1491 to $1611 this month. However, because I bought a logo I’m in love with from Lost Spots, I have to factor in that cost. I’m choosing to amortize those costs over some months. By the way, if you are looking for a logo design and ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogMay 1, 2020 at 11:09 am ET
In case you missed parts one, two, and three, I’m sharing my notes after seeing 40 start-up financial companies present their companies. Today, I’m rounding up the last of the four companies.
BlingNation - You’d think this name would have something to do about pushing luxury branding, but that’s not the case. It’s yet another mobile payment. It looked like they weren’t a consumer product, but instead plan to sell their product for private branding.
Zopa - Won the Best of Show, which I think shocked many. This is not a P2P company in the US like the ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 30, 2020 at 2:26 pm ET
Here’s another round of my notes from yesterday’s Finovate demos. Since each company only got 5 minutes to show their stuff, my notes are short as well. I got to meet many of the companies afterward to get more detail.
Expensr - I thought this might steal Best of Show. It’s a personal finance management tool like Mint, but with a strong focus on widgets. The idea is that you can customize everything to your liking, which is one of the things that came up a month ago at a blogger meet-up they sponsored. They also ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 29, 2020 at 1:54 pm ET
Buxfer - Demo had numerous technical difficulties… website was down. Maybe we’ll see their demo later in the day.
Guardian Analytics - FraudMAP product watches for suspicious activity banking activity. Banks can use this tool to monitor login times, login IPs and other information and get alerted to possible fraud.
Jwaala - Thus far it is the star of the show in my opinion. MoneyTracker is a personal finance management system, much like Mint, Geezeo, Expensr, or Wesabe. Widgets are similar to iGoogle o NetVibes. Has a great natural language search so you ask questions like, “Show me ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 29, 2020 at 12:00 pm ET
Here are some updates from the first batch of demos at Finovate.
Authentium - Safe Central makes keystroke loggers or screenshot grabbers “blind.” Runs on top of Firefox. Prevents man in the middle and phishing.
Credit Karma - Free credit score tracking using their proprietary scoring system. Cons are that you need to give up your social security number. This seems to not be a problem, because 86% of people who try to join complete the registration. Credit pulls are “soft pulls” - a very good thing. Credit Karma gives you percentile vs. general population. Makes ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 29, 2020 at 11:01 am ET
Today, I’m gong to attempt to live blog from Finovate Start-up. I’ve got my pink Asus Eee in tow.
Here are some things to expect:
Many Typos - I haven’t gotten used to this keyboard yet.
Short Notes - Each company has just five minutes to demo its product. Since I grew up on MTV this shouldn’t be a problem – as long as there are hair bands, pyrotechnics, and Tawny dancing on the hood of a car.
Me Fallen Asleep - I had to get up at 5:30 this morning for 7:00AM registration. It seems that they’ve stressed ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 28, 2020 at 8:55 am ET
Welcome to the 150th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. It amazes me to see the 150 number there. I had grand notions of tying all 115 accepted submissions into a good story. However, with the Comcast outage in my area yesterday, I scrambled today to get all the submissions in the form that you see below. Though I wasn’t always working at full speed, it took 16 hours to read the articles, write the blurb that you see below, and add my comments after most of them. If it took me 16 hours ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 27, 2020 at 11:56 am ET
Yesterday, I woke up excited for the NFL draft. It had been heavily publicized for the last two months. I was disappointed to find that Comcast, my cable television and Internet provider, was experiencing an outage. Right before the draft, they got the television working, but the Internet was down all day. I finally called Comcast late last night to find that when they fixed the outage, the cable modem needed to be recycled. I lost a days worth of work with the Carnival of Personal Finance due out tomorrow because they didn’t tell me ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 25, 2020 at 2:55 pm ET
This Tuesday, I’m heading to Finovate Start-up hosted by Jim Bruene of NetBanker fame. There are a ton of companies presenting there. Some of the highlights that I’m looking forward to are Buxfer, Loanio (are they ever going to launch), Mint, Prosper, SmartyPig, Wesabe, Zecco, Zopa. I’m disappointed that Geezeo isn’t going to be there. Lending Club bowed out, which is reasonable considering their quiet period.
I’d like to single out Vestopia and SmartHippo (not to be confused with SmartyPig or my upcoming start-up SmarterBoar). These companies have contacted me for one-on-one interviews. I’ve been ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 25, 2020 at 11:18 am ET
Yesterday, I wrote about my techno-lust with the Asus Eee. Not long after the post went live, the lowest possible version on Craigslist for $200. That’s $100 less than retail, and $40 less from any other price I’ve previous seen. I jumped at the opportunity to own it. I figured that in the worst case scenario, I could sell it for a very small profit on Ebay tomorrow. I love when I can try “new-to-me” technology with little or no financial downside.
So now I get to “the catch…” It is the pink version. ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 24, 2020 at 6:55 pm ET
I’ve got a couple of pieces of carnival news that may be of interest to other personal finance bloggers. (Readers who are not bloggers, might wish to move on or read about my new techno-lust.)
The Carnival of P2P Lending is looking for bloggers to host upcoming carnivals. It’s usually a small carnival making it a very small commitment. The small size lends itself to a creative and entertaining carnival. Lastly, the Carnival of P2P Lending has a five day window from the last submission until it is due to run. This means you won’t be ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 24, 2020 at 8:55 am ET
A year ago, I was looking for a portable computer that could allow me to blog from places like Aruba. I thought I found an acceptable solution with a PDA and bluetooth keyboard. It didn’t work quite as well as I hoped. As two pieces, you can’t put it on your lap and type. The PDA had some difficulties connecting to WIFI access points. The small screen with 640×480 resolution made web navigation, and blogging difficult. In the end, I realized I had to bring my real computer making that travel computer a poor ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 22, 2020 at 7:31 pm ET
My wife is active duty military - and with that comes a number of perks. One of those great military benefits is a significant savings on vacations via flights, hotels, and car rentals. Eighteen months ago we went to Hawaii at a cost of half what others would expect to pay. On Saturday, I found out how it would have been even cheaper if I did a little more planning. Today, I’d like to share some of the ways to save money with nearly free vacations - but remember, you may need to be in the ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 22, 2020 at 10:50 am ET
A couple of weekends ago, I a good friend of mine invited me out on his boat. It was beautiful day, around 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We headed on up to McCovey Cove to sit outside the San Francisco Giants stadium and enjoy the day. There’s also the small chance [...] ... ( more)
From Lazy Man and Money - view blog entries - visit this blogApril 21, 2020 at 11:23 am ET
It’s the middle of the month, so it’s a time to reflect on my net worth. I’ve been very happy to break even lately as I focus on making my businesses grow - while trying to slow down from the rat race.
April came as a very pleasant surprise - the stock market rebound had boosted my net worth $10,000 - to $218,825. This is despite the value of my Boston property reaching an all-time low. If that returns to the norm, it would add another $20,000 to my net worth.
Last month, I had mentioned taking a part ... ( more)
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