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QuickHits: The 5 Easy Ways to Get Free Personal Finance Updates from PT Money

You may have noticed I made some changes to the way I’m presenting information here at PT Money. I thought I might take a second to revisit all the ways you can get more out of this website. There’s more to it than simply bookmarking it, or trying to remember to come back each day.

You can have the content automatically delivered to you. There are main 5 ways to get my free content delivered to you. None of these 5 ways will ever cost you a dime. They’re all easy to sign up with. And you can unsubscribe from each one instantly, whenever you like. Okay, here’s a comparison so you can determine which one is best for you:

RSS

• Cost: Free
• How Often: 3 or 4 updates per week. You get my articles within minutes of when I post them.  Typically around 6 am CST on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and sometimes Sunday.
• What You Get: The full content of my latest article. No clutter from the website or sidebar. Just the text and images from my articles. This is my favorite way to read blog posts. If you don’t really understand RSS, check this helpful video explaining RSS.
• How You Sign Up: Click here for my RSS feed.

RSS by Email

• Cost: Free
• How Often: 3 or 4 emails per week. Typically around noon on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and sometimes Sunday.
• What You Get: The full content of my latest article. No clutter from the website or sidebar. Just the text and images from my articles.
• How to Sign Up: Click here for RSS by email.

Facebook

• Cost: Free
• How Often: 3 or 4 mentions on your news feed per week. Typically around 6 am CST on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and sometimes Sunday
• What You Get: A small blurb about the article, picture, and a link to access my website where you can read the entire thing.
• How You Sign Up: Click here to visit my Facebook page.

Bonus Content Areas:

These next two connection points will give you updates about what’s on this blog. Plus a lot more content. Still free.

Twitter

• Cost: Free
• How Often: While I tweet several times a day, my actual blog post tweets follow the same pattern as my RSS feed. Typically around 6 am CST on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and sometimes Sunday.
• What You Get: A small blurb and a link to my latest blog post. Plus, tweets with links to other interesting articles. Quick money tips and links to freebies. This is where I share ideas too small to create a full article. I also occasionally share a bit more personal information.
• How You Sign Up: Click here to be taken to my Twitter Profile.

Newsletter

• Cost: Free
• How Often: No more than 1 or 2 emails per week. Twice a month for the actual latest blog posts roundup.
• What You Get: Access to all of my e-books (yes, there’s more than 1). My 6 week series, “The 6 Key Takeaways of Personal Finance”. Latest 10 posts on the blog (you’ll get this around 2 times a month). TBD (I’m still working on more detailed content for the newsletter). I’m really excited about this new aspect to my content. And I hope to really help a whole new audience of people with this service.
• How You Sign Up: Use the form below…

Let me know if you have any questions about signing up. Thanks again for reading PT Money.

The QuickHits

Listed below are some great blog posts last week from around the pf blogosphere:

A good analysis of time vs money: Is it Silly to Pay Retail to Protect the Value of Your Time?

More info about the homebuyer tax credit:
Senate Extending Home Buyer Tax Credit
Senators Agree to Extend First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit and Allow $6,500 for Current Homeowners

Good tips for the Holidays: 10 Ways to Save Money this Thanksgiving

Other interesting finds:
Finding Financial Treasure
What’s the Average Credit Card Debt in America?
My Wallet Gets Beer Goggles Too
Are You an Expert on Personal Money Management?
Don’t Lose Any Sleep Over Not Having a Good Credit Score

Also, this past week I had the opportunity to write at the Quicken Online Blog. Check out my blog post: The Proven Strategy for Making Extra Money

carnivals… Money Stories, Money Hackers, Debt Reduction, The Best of Personal Finance

2 Comments | Posted in » Personal Finance Links

Quick! Go Buy a New Home! New $6,500 Homebuyer Tax Credit for Existing Owners and $8,000 for First-Timers Gets Extended

The lawmakers have acted. There is now a $6,500 tax credit for current homeowners to go out and buy another home. You no longer have to be a first-timer to take advantage of the homebuyer credit. Trade up, baby! And as predicted by yours truly, Congress has also extended the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit. I guess it’s good time to be looking for a home. But not so fast. There are some details to go over:

Amount of the Credit and Important Dates

As I write this, President Obama is likely signing the bill, which he’s promised to do. So don’t do anything until the bill becomes law if you’re a current homeowner looking to use the $6,500.

If you’re a first-time homebuyer and you were worried about not making the November deadline, you can breathe easy. You still qualify for up to $8,000 in tax credits. In addition, as was mentioned above, people who have owned their homes at least five years qualify for up to $6,500 in credits. I personally have been in my home for a measly three years. So I’m the guy caught in the middle paying his tax who’s not getting a piece of the action here.

Okay, enough of my sob story, here are the important dates involved with the new credit and the extension. It’s easy. The dates are the same for both. Your purchase must be secured by April 30, 2010 and your closings must be finalized by June 30, 2010.

Income Limits

Hold your horses, Richie Rich. You can’t partake. Here are the income limits that Congress says is fair: If you’re a single taxpayers with an adjusted gross income under $125,000 you are eligible for the credit’s full benefits. Joint filers must earn AGI of under $225,000 to get in on the action. If you have an income of up to $145,000 (single) or $245,000 (joint) may receive partial homebuyer tax credits. That’s what you call “phase outs” there folks.

Other Rules that Apply

There are some other rules you might want to be aware of:

• Only those homes that are $800,000 and under are eligible for the tax credit.
• Members of the military serving outside the United States for more than 90 days will have until June 30, 2011, to qualify for the tax credit.
• The program is expected to cost the federal government $10.8 billion.

I’ll mostly leave it to you to decide whether this is a positive thing or not. But I tend to think that while this is a windfall for some people, it’s just another prop up for our Economy as a whole.

Let me hear your thoughts about this new $6,500 tax credit in the comments below…

1 Comment | Posted in » Tax and Government

Save Money on Health Care: A Quick Summary of Tax Advantaged Medical Savings Accounts

In light of recent Health Care discussions on my blog and the fact that it’s soon to be benefit re-enrollment period at your work, I thought I’d address a couple of tax-advantaged health care accounts: the Health Savings Account and the Flexible Spending Account.

I’ve used an Flexible Spending Account for some time and I’m just learning about Health Savings Accounts. Let’s look at what they are and how they can help you.

Health Savings Account (HSA)

The Health Savings Account is like an IRA. You get to fund it with pre-tax dollars and it’s typically administered by a financial institution. But unlike an IRA, you get to use the funds when you need them towards qualifying medical costs.

You also get to decide where the funds are invested. You get a lot of control with this account. Tax savings and growth.

Only certain people qualify. You must be enrolled in an HSA-eligible high-deductible health insurance plan.

You’re annual contributions are limited. 2010 limits are $3,050 for individuals and $6,150 for families.

Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

The Flexible Spending Account is a pre-tax dollars savings account your company administers where you’re allowed to save up a year’s worth of health care costs. Most people use it to pay for deductibles, co-pays, and household health care items. It works like this:

At the beginning of the year (or during your benefit open enrollment) you must elect to open the account and save a specific dollar amount.

This account is funded automatically from your earnings at work. Your company will deduct the funds before taxes are calculated (pre-tax).

Throughout the year you’re allowed to spend the dollars you’ve accumulated in the account. The spending must be for qualifying health care costs.

Important: it’s a use-it-or-lose-it type plan. You must spend all the funds in the account or you lose them. Thus, people are normally very conservative with the amount they elect to fund the account.

The effect of using the account is big tax savings. If you normally spend $1,000 on “above coverage” health care costs in a year, you could save around $250 a year by using one of these accounts.

Things you might not have known were qualifying health care expenses (every plan is different, but these oddities are likely qualifying): Hand sanitizer, cold remedies (and other over the counter meds), sunscreen (like Coppertone®), and band aids.

What We Use

We currently use an FSA, which we heavily funded this year for baby medical costs. But we do not qualify for the HSA because we’re lucky to be on a low-deductible premium plan.

Do you use these accounts? How have they worked out for you?

2 Comments | Posted in » Tax and Government

PocketSmith: A Calendar-Based Financial Planner

You can win an annual premium membership ($60 value) to PocketSmith. Check out my review and then scroll to the bottom for the contest details.

Tracking Your Future Cash Flow

Do you remember my Excel-based Monthly Expense Tracker? I used to use it religiously to keep track of my future spending and saving goals. This was great because it allowed me to avoid over-drafting my accounts, and helped me to stay focused on reaching my savings and debt reduction goals. Looking  towards your future spending with your goals in mind is far more valuable than simply looking back at your past spending and beating yourself up over failures.

Well, someone took that concept and designed an online software tool that does exactly the same thing. Only theirs is far more interesting to look at and comes with a few more bells and whistles. It’s called PocketSmith.

More About PocketSmith

PocketSmith is a calendar-based financial planner. It helps you maintain a focus on cash flow forecasts. It’s quick and easy to use. In short,

“it uses a calendar paradigm for a unique view on one’s finances, and bridges the gap for many who are looking for a simple and understandable solution for working with their money.”

PocketSmith also comes with modules for adding actual spending data from your bank account. This is done using manual upload. Automation coming soon. They also have a nice goal setting module which works hand in hand with the calendar to help you reach your savings and debt reduction goals.

How PocketSmith Works

When you create your PocketSmith account you are taken to your calendar. Your first step is to load this calendar up with all your known future income, spending, saving, and debt reduction activities. For instance, if you get paid on the 15th, you go to that date and create an “event” called salary (or paycheck or whatever you want to call it).

You’re then able to add in how much your paycheck will be, and set up any type of recurring options (i.e. every month on the 15th). One thing that I noticed PocketSmith might improve on is the ability to add recurring items on specific dates. For instance, I get paid on the 1st and 15th. I’m not able (as far as I can tell) able to set up my salary event using those parameters.

Adding future expenses and savings transfers is just as easy. Once you have it all setup you’re able to see what the projection for your cash flow is. Going forward you need only tweak the calendar events as your information changes.

Win a Premium Membership to PocketSmith

PocketSmith actually has a free membership plan, but I’ve been given 3 premium memberships to give away here on the blog. How to win:

1. Retweet this post. I’ll randomly select one person from the retweets at the end of the week.
2. Leave a comment below. I’ll randomly select 2 people from the comments at the end of the week.

Feel free to sign up for the free account first. If you win, PocketSmith can upgrade your account.

11 Comments | Posted in » How To Save Money, Organize Your Finances

Results of a Week Without Spending

The “Week Without Spending” officially ended on Friday eve. Today I’m sharing the results of our little experiment. In case you missed it, last Monday I shared that Mrs. PT and I were doing a week without spending (Sunday though Friday) to help us stay on track with our saving and help reduce some of the clutter in the house and food in the cupboards. The only exception to the no spending rule was that if we earned extra money during the week we could use that as we pleased. So how’d we do?

Here are the actual results (in no particular order):

• I’d say it was a success! We actually made $3 at the end of the week.
• The Christmas cards were a purchase we already had planned and due to a sale price ending during the week we decided to make the purchase this week rather than next. Excuses, excuses, I know.
• The Craigslist sales and consignment shop money were quick money. As were the returns.
• The dinner on Friday night was a feast at Boston Market. They were running a $1 dinner special.
• We still have about $100 worth of items on Craigslist which hopefully will sell soon.

More thoughts about the week:

• It wasn’t that hard to eat more meals from home, thanks to Mrs. PT creating some excellent meal choice for us throughout the week. This made the meals outside the home more special.
• Earning extra money to spend wasn’t that difficult. While there might not always be things to return on hand, there seems to always be something lying around that we could sell on Craigslist. We have a bunch of clutter.
• The clothes consignment shop was easy money too. Although, the lady at the counter told me my styles (that didn’t sell) were “a bit dated.” I took that as a compliment and quickly dropped those items off at Goodwill.
• It didn’t take much planning to prevent those impulse convenient items.
• This is something we should do at least once a month. We really could use to do this sort of thing more often. Recently, we’d gotten lazy with our spending and we haven’t always made the conscious choice with our end goals in mind. This week helped us to be more aware about our spending and live more within our means.

So what do you think about our experiment results?

3 Comments | Posted in » Frugal Living

Should You Move to a High-Deductible Health Insurance Plan and Use an HSA to Make Up the Difference?

General Motors recently announced that they are moving towards higher deductible insurance plans. Such things wouldn’t normally be news worthy. But here we are in the middle of a government controlled health care battle. Every piece of health care news seems to have an impact.

So, should you consider moving to a high-deductible plan, if given the option? Odds are if GM (who traditionally has “Cadillac” insurance plans…pun intended) is moving towards higher deductibles, your company will be too. Therefore, you should likely be ready to make this decision for yourself when the time comes.

Below I’ll present an example of someone who’s making the move. I’ll also provide some things to consider when deciding whether it’s right to make a similar change.

Moving to a High-Deductible Plan: An Example

I have a friend who’s current health insurance plan (covering him and two kids) is costing him $614.63/month with a deductible of $500 and a $20 copay. He’s considering a new policy: $278.08/month with a deductible of $5,600. His tax bracket is 25%.

He calculates that the savings on his monthly premiums will be $336.55/month, which is $4,038.60 in a year. That’s incredible savings on the premiums alone! He’s considering using a Health Savings Account (HSA) to stash the difference in plan costs.

But he knows he can’t stop the analysis there. He factors in estimated usage: best case, he says his medical cost for all three people including dental and prescriptions would be $2,000. He’s a young guy, so I’m sure that’s fair.

Under the new plan, he’d have to pay all of this $2,000 out-of-pocket, or out of his newly opened HSA. So the $4,038.60 in premium savings minus $2,000 actual medical cost plus $500 in tax savings using the HSA equals estimated savings of $2,538.60 per year. Pretty good, right?

He says the worst case scenario would be that he has $5,600+ in medical expenses. He gets 25% tax savings, so of the $5,600 deductible, he would only spend $4,200. His other deductible was $500, so to compare he can subtract $500 from the $4,200 to get $3,700. Which compared to $4,038 (saved above) would give him an actual difference in yearly cost of $338.60 to his advantage. Basically, even if he pays his entire deductible, he comes out ahead.

My friend goes on to say,

“Even in the 15% bracket, my worst case would be that I paid $221.40 more a year than I would have with the other plan, which I believe is worth the risk when the savings are so big. Plus I can roll over from year to year and could get an interest-bearing Health Savings Account.

As long as I keep it funded correctly (paying the difference in premium to the HSA until I have it where needed, it should be a great financial situation for me. Once I get it fully funded, I can take the money that I was spending to fund the HSA and put into savings, a Roth IRA, etc.”

Factors to Consider When Thinking of Moving to a High-Deductible Plan

Okay. Let’s extract from my friend’s example some of the key points he used to help make his decision:

• Will you save on premiums? In the example above, the answer was “yes”, and in a big way.
• What’s your estimated usage? I like the way my friend used an average and then compared it to the maximum estimated spend. It might be prudent to break out last year’s actual costs to provide some more perspective.
• Should you be trusted to setup the HSA and contribute? My friend seems to think that would be a easy thing for him. And I agree. The fact that he’s even taking the time to make this calculation shows he’s got the initiative to make the savings happen. And he’s obviously had the money each month if he’s been making that kind of payment. There are some eligibility rules for HSA you should know about. I may discuss that in a later post. Shop for insurance plans with health savings accounts.

But what are some other things to consider?

• Are You Getting Similar Coverage with the New Plan? My friend didn’t mention a couple of things when discussing his old plan vs the new one. The maximum annual out of pocket allowed and the difference in the actual coverage of the plan. If he didn’t already, he should go back and factor those things in.
• Are you healthy enough? If you’re already maxing out your current plan and you have some serious health issues that require prescription drugs, odds are a high-deductible plan isn’t for you.
• Are you about to try to get pregnant?
  
• Do you have pre-existing conditions? On an employer plan, pre-existing conditions aren’t a problem. Moving to a high-deductible plan will create a re-start in your coverage and the insurer is likely to charge you more for those pre-existing conditions.

What’s your take? How do you feel about the analysis done above in my friend’s example? Have you or are you considering a move to a high-deductible plan? Share your experience below…

Photo by Mozo Man

4 Comments | Posted in » Insurance, Tax and Government

52 Ways to Make Extra Money …Revisited

I’ve created a download-able version of my most popular post, 52 Ways to Make Extra Money. This book is available for download right now.

But this isn’t just a rehash of the old post. With the help of some friends I was able to provide much more detail for selected ideas (around 15). The guide also includes 2 bonus ideas, extra money tips, and quotes. Plus, it was beautifully designed by my friend Ryan, of HillThread.com.

Thanks to these friends for their expert contributions to the expanded sections:

• J. Money from Budgets are Sexy
• Bob from Christian Personal Finance
• FFB from Free From Broke
• Pete from Bible Money Matters
• Baker from Man Vs. Debt
• Madison from My Dollar Plan
• Jason from One Money Design
• Studenomist from Studenomics

Update on the Saving to Give e-book: A week or two ago I mentioned I was writing an e-book focused around the idea of saving more to be able to give more. That e-book is still in the works. I’ve written it. I just need to determine the best way to format it and present it to you. Those that originally signed up with the PT Money Newsletter in hopes for a preview copy will get one soon.

14 Comments | Posted in » Make Money, Money Books

A Money Experiment: A Week Without Spending

Remember 7th grade and the science experiments? Ah, good times. Well, today I’m not going to make you dissect a frog. We’ll be looking at more of a monetary experiment.

Just a few more days till the end of the month, right? I’ll get paid and we’ll have a little more breathing room in the budget. You see, Mrs. PT and I have been saving aggressively over the past few months for some upcoming goals. We do our saving automatically, a few days after we get paid. That way we have the rest of the month to spend the remaining funds on whatever. This month, however, our aggressive saving and spending finally got the best of us. Now we’re running a bit low. So, instead of dipping into our savings or using debt, we are challenging ourselves to not spend any money this week.

One exception: If we earn extra money by selling something or by returning something and getting a refund we get to use that money however we like.

Because of the exception above, I made some moves over the weekend. I grabbed a few items around the house that we didn’t need anymore and listed them on Craigslist.org. Two have sold so far, giving us $38 dollars. We also brought some of our old clothes by a consignment store, which gave us an additional $10. That’s almost $50 to spend this week without having to dip into savings. And if a few more items sell, we’ll have even more cash. Sweet!

More thoughts going into this week:

1. I don’t pretend to think that this is going to be easy. We’ve gotten into the habit of spending when we feel like it. Especially dining out for lunch or dinner. So, believe it or not we normally spend a lot more than $50 on food in a week. It’s our biggest frivolous expense, you could say. Plus, we have all the other normal expenses to avoid: groceries, personal care, and convenience items. Although, I think the groceries will be easy since we have so much in our cupboard already.
2. I know some of you guys are a lot smarter with your spending, do this sort of thing all the time, and are probably laughing at me right now.
3. Hopefully we can do it successfully and get more in tune with our needs vs wants. I see it as a chance to get back to the basics.

I’ll report back on Friday and let you know how we did.

If you’d like to take on this experiment with me, let me know in the comments below. You can also follow along on Twitter for more timely updates.

If you’re tweeting too, use the hashtag #weekwithoutspending

Carnivals from the last two weeks:

Economy And Your Finances, Pecuniary Delights, Money Hacks, Frugality, Money Hacks, Twenty Somethings

7 Comments | Posted in » Frugal Living, Money Stories