The Digerati Life

Do you know how much you can save with the right gas credit card? Should you care? Maybe so, especially if you realize that different cards can pay out varying amounts of rewards and bonuses based on your spending patterns. I reviewed this gas credit card survey by CreditCardClients.com and was struck by the discrepancies in savings you get by using the best and worst rewards cards as listed in their rankings. Their credit card rankings are based on particular spending profiles.

Given three different household spending profiles (Profile 1, Profile 2, Profile 3), the survey ranked the rewards that each household receives from a list of rewards cards, and in the most dramatic scenario, showed that the disparity in rewards values came up to 400% between the best and worst cards listed. That’s quite a huge gap, enough to make me question the efficacy of our own credit cards. This whole study just reinforced my desire to start shopping around for possible alternatives.

Here are the biggest takeaways I got from the CreditCardClients.com study:

10 Tips and Pointers For Using Gas Credit Cards

#1 Don’t get cards with annual fees since they neutralize and counteract the advantages of rebates you receive. Standard no annual fee cards usually rate better than rewards cards with fees.

#2 Using a branded gas credit card will get you higher rewards if you fill up at the branded gas station. Be aware that you can get lower or no rewards if you use your gas card in competing stations. Rewards are designed to create long-term brand loyalty so if these rewards are curtailed at competing gas stations, it’s to discourage the consumer from buying from somewhere else. Makes sense to me.

#3 Typical gas cards return 3% to 5% rebates on gas purchases.

#4 Maximize your rewards by matching your cards to your spending patterns. Just like any other product out there, rebate cards are not “one size fits all”. There are cards that encourage spending by offering more rewards the more you spend. On the other hand, there are cards that will award you high rewards at first but then limit your overall rewards per year. Taking the time to study how you spend and finding just the right card that best rewards your level and type of spending can yield big savings. In fact, the difference between choosing the right and wrong card can be enormous.

Through some basic examples and case studies, the survey determined that the discrepancy of rewards values between the best and worst cards ranged from 100% to 400%. It looks to me that there’s a lot of potential here to improve your savings and increase your rewards benefits by simply switching to a card that better matches your spending profile.

A note of precaution: Having a card with unlimited rewards or with rewards for meeting a spending threshold can be great for the benefits, but dangerous because people may feel motivated to charge more to “save more”. Beware of your card use!

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Do you know how much you need to save for your children’s college education? Here are some simple tools to help.

How much have we thought about our children’s future? To be honest, we’re not sure where our own kids will be going yet; it may be way too early for that. Of course, we all wish they’ll be eligible for the Ivy Leagues, but that won’t become apparent until they’re much older. And even if they have a shot at attending such universities (and that’s a BIG IF, based on parameters such as how competitive the admissions landscape will be by the time they apply for college and our children’s “credentials” at that point), the question arises: can we afford a high-end university education?

Basic Strategies To Save For College

There are many ways to save for a kid’s education. Here are a couple of scenarios:

• Pay up now, and cross your fingers. Many people spend their funds on the best private elementary schools money can buy early on, in order to prepare their kids for possible entry into top-notch schools later. Once their kids are ready for college, they hope that their kids qualify for financial aid.
• Save now and pay up later. Others scrimp and save to meet the longer term goal of funding a college education for their child, while having their kids attend public schools at the lower grade levels. They make the sacrifices today to afford the costs of a high quality education at a prominent university later on.

For now, we’ve chosen the road from “public/semi-private school to top-rated college” (the latter route), although how much money we save will have an impact on the type of college or university our children will be attending.

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Don’t you sometimes wish you could clone yourself? How do you work smarter, not harder?

Photo by Tony M.

It seems like lots of folks have the same complaint as I do, which is that they always have a lot of stuff going on that they wish they could accomplish all at once. Or that they don’t have the time but have more than enough inclination to tackle several projects, tasks and errands simultaneously. Don’t we all just wish there were more than 24 hours in a day to do everything we’d like? Yeah, that’s why I’m about to order myself the book, “The 4 Hour Work Week” that everyone in the blogosphere’s been talking about and which I’d also like to chime in on, once I’ve gotten around to reading it .

It’s also the reason I haven’t yet actively gotten aboard Twitter — I can see myself losing many precious minutes / hours to it if I were to dip more than a few toes in this new community. Like a lot of you who live on the internet, I’d love to be able to expand my online networking efforts, but I worry about how much of a “time pit” the internet social gathering holes actually are.

I’m always on the lookout for ways to try to free up more time, which is something that remains elusive to me. I thought that by leaving the workforce, that I’d miraculously be sitting on an additional 8 to 10 hours that I could use any which way I’d like, and I’d have lots of time to relax. Of course, my life’s much more balanced now, so maybe all that extra time is going to more hours of sleep, that’s why I’m not noticing the extra hours during the day!

The issue here is that I’m a great planner, but not a good enough organizer and certainly one who’d like to get better at “working smarter” rather than harder. Hmmmm…. wonder if working on a productivity blog will help me get better at these things? Then again, it may be another “time pit”.

Any other suggestions for increasing one’s productivity levels? Maybe you can tell us what worked for you!

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A look at people living outside our financial system.

Photo by diaper

We already know that we have between 10 and 15 million people who work in the U.S. illegally. Do they have a bank account? Very few do. Most fear without reason that banks will report them to the authorities. Many don’t speak English and don’t understand the intricacies of the banking system. We also have another 10 to 15 million Americans who simply don’t believe a bank account will help them. And here’s a revelation: it’s believed that the population without a bank account earns more than 500 billion dollars annually.

Check Cashing Businesses

People who do not have a bank account take their checks to a specialized institution. They use check cashing businesses and must pay a fee between 3% and 5% of the total amount. As they walk out the store, somebody may be waiting to rob them of the hard-earned cash. Still other fast growing businesses offer to loan them money — normally no more than $500 — in advance of payday. In this case, the fees are exorbitant; it can reach over 500% the annual rate. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives this definition of usury: “an unconscionable or exorbitant rate or amount of interest.” Unfortunately, no authority has offered to curb these abusive practices, which are just some of the many other traps that financially vulnerable people fall into (along with predatory loan schemes such as creative mortgage loans and subprime borrowing activities).

New Ideas To Capture the Illegal Immigrant Market

USA Today recently reported that Bank of America is planning to issue credit cards to illegal immigrants. According to Ruben Navarrete, editorial writer for the San Diego Union Tribune, the bank has already started a program called SafeSend to allow illegal immigrants to open checking accounts and send money safely to Mexico. All this created quite an uproar among those who believe that we should not encourage undocumented workers to stay in the United States. Of course, the motive for the program is not altruistic; it is simply an effort to cash in on this previously untapped resource. The credit card charges over 21% a year, a rate that is considered high by most standards.

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If you’ve got a good amount of savings built up, a WTDirect Savings Account is one high yield savings option.

WTDirect is the new online division of the publicly traded bank and trust that is Wilmington Trust. It’s a new online bank that’s offering a high yield savings account with an APY of 3.31%.

The rate was just recently adjusted (from 3.1% to 3.31%) this month, the second increase they’ve had in the last month and a half. So, they’re staying competitive in this economy…a good thing!

Update: The following offer on the WTDirect Savings Account bonus is NO LONGER valid! The promotion was so successful, that WTDirect has decided to end the campaign much earlier than expected. The information that follows about the bonus no longer applies, but if you’re still interested in opening an account with this bank to receive the high APY, then you can still do so through this link: .

They’re also offering a sign on bonus right now till September 5 (use promotion code “WTF3SOB” upon applying), which is based on your deposits and balance kept over 60 days. As a customer, you’ll receive a bonus ranging from $100 to $250 depending on the size of your account, if you maintain a designated balance for 60 days.

Here’s a table that shows you what you’ll get for your balance:

The Fine Print On The Bonus

WTDirect states that this bonus is pegged to your initial deposit. This means that you’ll need to deposit at least $10,000 right off the bat to be eligible for the bonus. In addition, your account must remain open, be in good standing and have a balance level that does not go below the initial funding balance for a span of 60 days; after this point, your account will be credited with the bonus by early November. A little stringent, in my opinion, but if you already maintain a savings account with a high balance, then this combination 3.31% return plus the bonus may be an attractive alternative.

How To Apply

If you’re interested in this offer, here’s where to apply. You can use the promotion code “WTF3SOB” when you submit your application.

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Profiling the best company in the world.

I’ve had the fortune to work at some great companies, which offered perks that were almost as good as the salaries they gave out. What’s it like at these places? For successful, top-notch companies, rewards abound (to keep employees loyal); and here are some of the extras that can round out one’s compensation package:

• Free gym and pool
• Stock options (a piece of the equity pie)
• Bonus plans
• Referral bonuses
• 401K with matching
• Educational plan
• Child care services on work campus
• ESPP
• Health Reimbursement Plans
• Flexible Spending Plans
• Matching donations to charities and schools
• Relocation assistance
• Life and disability insurance

These benefits are awesome and can make many hours of toiling away in a cubicle much more palatable. But great as these benefits are, they’re just the tip of the iceberg for a company that has regularly captured the #1 title as “Best Company” in the nation. In Silicon Valley, this is where everyone (from accountants to engineers to web designers) wishes they could work, so I was curious to find out what it really was like to work at a place where nerds rule .

Profile of A Top Company

Fortune’s number one company to work for “sets the standard for Silicon Valley: free meals, swimming spa, and free doctors onsite. Engineers can spend 20% of time on independent projects. Their company is so stinking rich that it continues to ooze cash even while lavishing benefits on its staff. ” They’re also responsible for a good portion of California’s tax dollars.

These are the reasons why Google takes the title as the best place to work:

What’s it like?
Life for Google employees at the Mountain View campus is like college. It feels like the brainiest university imaginable - one in which every kid can afford a sports car (though geeky hybrids are cooler here than hot rods).

Fun, healthful activites
At Google you can work out in the gym; attend subsidized exercise classes; get a massage (by a masseuse or fancy massage chairs); study Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish and French and ask a personal concierge to arrange dinner reservations. Too many amenities to count, including lap pool, rock climbing wall, pool table. Or how about beach volleyball, Foosball, videogames, ping pong and roller hockey twice a week in the parking lot. Oh yeah, dogs allowed.

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Have you been watching the Olympics?

I haven’t been following it that much, and only do so when I surf the channels during a break. But I did hear about this guy who won a ton of gold medals (was it up to 8 now?), whom the Festival of Frugality #139 was celebrating in its current edition.

I was happy to have had my post (Lost Money: How Money Drains Add Up) make it as an Editor’s Pick at this festival. I also didn’t realize that I had accidentally submitted this same post this week to the Carnival of Personal Finance, which is actually against the CoPF’s rules. This post also made it there as one of the Editor’s Choices, but now I feel guilty having made the boo-boo with the submissions. Unlike how it would be at the Olympics, I wasn’t disqualified. I hope the carnival “powers that be” will forgive me for this error this one time!

But back to the Festival of Frugality, hosted at Our Fourpence Worth. Here are some of my faves for this edition:

• Is The Layoff Boom about to Fall? @ Funny About Money
• Frugally and Happily Back To School 9 Different Ways @ MoneyNing
• 13 Tips On How To Maximize Grocery Shopping @ We Like Money

While at the Carnival of Personal Finance #166 presented by Everyday Finance, I was drawn to these posts:

• The Lady Who Wouldn’t Pay Her Mortgage @ Can I Get Rich On A Salary?
• Dow 370,000 @ Dividend Growth Investor
• If You Want To Be Wealthy, You Need To Know This @ Millionaire Mommy Next Door

Also, I won a place in the hard to enter Real Estate Blog Carnival this time around! Yay! I got the “Inverted Elbow” award (warning: this Olympic moment is ugly) for my post about big houses entering foreclosure via the Extreme Makeover Home Edition show.

And to round out this Olympic themed week, I was very thrilled to accept a bronze medal from the Carnival of Debt Reduction for my vintage article on how we can borrow, barter and buy used as ways to embrace a frugal lifestyle.

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Some thoughts on how to manage your investments through any stock market climate.

So far, the prediction that the stock market wasn’t going to close on a good note this year seems to be unfolding as expected. Remember the saying which suggests that “however January turns out, so shall the rest of the year?” Well just as expected, our stock portfolio (along with the investment portfolios of countless investors out there) is suffering through the rough patch brought about by the credit and subprime lending crisis.

But before we all bemoan the decline of our net worth, I’d like to offer some words of encouragement and supply you with information that should alleviate some of this worry:

Investment Management Tips For An Iffy Stock Market

#1 Are you going to act? Then go against the crowd.

Should you sell, buy or trade? If I had the extra money to invest, I would dollar cost average or invest in a lump sum at these lower market levels.

We’re often told that the best time to buy into the stock market is while it’s languishing. If you’re wondering when to “jump” into the market, now may be a reasonable time, although if you’re nervous about committing all your cash into the market right now, you can do so gradually, using dollar cost averaging methods or you can stay cautious by reviewing these ways to invest defensively with new monies.

If you don’t have any additional savings to make investment purchases, then hang on. By reading the rest of this article, you’ll see why staying put in this market (though against our natural inclinations) may be a sensible strategy. Find out more about how investing in down markets can be a good move.

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