Archive for the ‘Make Money’ Category
Friday, June 20th, 2008 |
Check it out. I’ve updated the list of $25 ING Direct Referral Bonus Links. As my regular readers know, I’m a huge fan of online-based savings accounts which pay you considerably more interest than traditional savings accounts.
More about how to utilize ING DIRECT:
Get Signed Up Today
If you are not already a customer of ING Direct and you’re interested in opening a savings or checking account there with at least a $250 deposit, use one of these links to receive an additional $25. I will receive a $10 bonus, as well. Thanks!
Posted in Make Money, Save Money | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 12th, 2008 |
(The following article was written by my friend Pete from Bible Money Matters. To get more of Pete’s content, subscribe to his rss feed.)
Credit Card Rewards - Seems Like a Good Deal
These last few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about our credit cards, and whether or not we should just close the rest of our credit accounts. My philosophy is becoming more and more anti-debt, and the idea of going credit card free is appealing, albeit a bit scary. It’s becoming less scary as we get closer to having a fully funded emergency fund.
Currently we have two open credit accounts, a cash rewards Mastercard and an American Express.
One reason I’ve kept the accounts open is because they have a cash rewards program. Every time I spend a certain amount of money, I get cash back on my purchases. Sounds like a pretty good deal right?
(more…)
Posted in Credit Cards, Make Money | 7 Comments »
Friday, June 6th, 2008 |
Check it out. My fellow Money Life Network members and I are doing a new writing series in conjunction with a $100 contest: The Summer Savings Series - Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!. It’s easy to enter and be a part of the series.
Head over to the network page and find out how. Look for my first post in the series next Tuesday, the 10th.
Posted in Make Money, Personal Finance Links | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 5th, 2008 |
Last month I wrote how you could use your Economic Stimulus payment to get free groceries and gas. I wanted to provide you with a quick update on how that transaction went for us. Oh, and since we didn’t have our actual stimulus check yet, we just used money from savings (to be more precise, we used a rewards credit card and will immediately pay it all off with money from savings). I digress…here’s how it went down:
Kroger Gift Cards
Late last month, Mrs. PT and I went to Kroger and purchased 4 x $300 Kroger gift cards, for a total of $1,200 spent. Because of the current Kroger promotion, our 4 gift cards have $330 each on them, for a total of $1,320. Therefore, we quickly made $120.
(more…)
Posted in Make Money | 2 Comments »
Friday, May 30th, 2008 |
You, Me, and ESPP
For a few weeks now my company has been touting their Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). I’m new to the company and have never participated in one of these before, so I really didn’t know what to think. I already have some company stock (via options) from when I was hired. In my opinion owning those options has been enough. You never want to own too much of one stock, right? Definitely not your own company. After all, being that I’m employed here, I’m already heavily invested in them.
15% Return? I’ll take it.
Well, a co-worker (who knows I love talking saving money) started talking to me about this plan and told me she was going to do it. She shared with me the basic concept. You make automatic contributions (between 1% and 10%) every pay period to a fund, that after six months is used to purchase company shares of stock at a 15% discount. You are then free to do whatever you want to with this stock. If you sell it that same day (called ESPP “flipping”), you simply make the 15% discount. Not bad for six months, right? That’s an annualized return of 30% less taxes. Nice. I’m not going to be getting that anywhere else. It’s actually more of a return if you look at it like this.
Can We Do This?
My thoughts quickly turned to my property tax self-escrow with ING DIRECT. Why not use the ESPP in place of the ING DIRECT account (currently earning 3%)? For the record, we have our emergency fund with ING DIRECT as well, so I wouldn’t be pulling ALL our money out of savings, just the property tax portion that I had set up in an extra account (contributing $350/mo.)
My next step was to do some actual, in-depth research on ESPPs and my company’s plan to be sure this was right move for Mrs. PT and I. You didn’t think I’d just blindly sign-up based on a few co-worker’s suggestions did you? I’ll share what I learned about ESPPs next week.
Other Thoughts on ESPPs
Here’s a very pro-ESPP post, ”the wonderful world of employee stocks” (@ Punny Money), which basically says at the 15% discount I’m getting, I’d be silly not to do it.
This article, “Cash in the Cubicle“ (@Market Watch) is also very positive in it’s overview of the ESPP.
A write-up (@Fairmark.com) called “Flipping ESPP Shares” discussed the ethics of doing ESPP flipping, which is what I’d be doing. Do you think this would be an “abuse of the benefit”? I really don’t.
Lastly, check out this read (@The Finance Buff) on employee stock purchase plans and how “ESPPs are a Fantastic Deal“.
—
I went ahead and signed up for the ESPP today, as it’s the last day to sign up. I’m pretty excited about this benefit and I’m super glad my company rolled it out. Is anyone else using an ESPP to flip for a quick profit?
Posted in Investing, Make Money, Real Estate, Save Money | 6 Comments »
Thursday, May 15th, 2008 |
Tricia
Congratulations, Tricia! You were randomly selected from 119 entries. Thanks for reading Prime Time Money, Tricia. I’ll send you an email shortly with details on getting the gift card.
Tricia happens to blog about personal finance as well. As promised, here’s a little shout out to her and her blog. She can be found at Blogging Away Debt. To the right is the pic from her about page…I couldn’t resist including that. Check her blog out and see how she’s blogging away her debts.
And a huge thank you to everyone who participated. It was fun and encouraging to get all those emails that said “One More Year, PT!” Thanks for your comments as well over the past few weeks. If you’re new to Prime Time Money, I hope you’ve enjoyed the content I’ve provided and will continue to read. As successful as this giveaway was, look for more giveaways in the future.
Here are the details of the random selection just in case you’re curious:
Posted in Blog, Make Money | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 |
Giveaway About To End
It’s been fun, but the Prime Time Money Anniversary $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway is about to come to an end. We’ve had about 75 people sign up, with about 100 total entries (due to some getting an extra entry for commenting on the site).
Tomorrow at 5 CDT I’ll close the giveaway and randomly select a winner. Haven’t entered yet? You’re not too late…
Enter While There’s Still Time
No excuses here… I’ve made it really simple to enter the giveaway. Here’s the 1,2,3:
- Subscribe to the feed by rss reader or by email.
- Email me (ptmoneyblog[at]gmail[dot]com) and include the secret phrase which is only found in the footer of posts found in the feed.
- (optional) Comment anywhere on the site for an extra entry.
Still confused? Send me a quick email and I’ll explain. Good luck to all. Remember to check back tomorrow after 5 CDT when I’ll announce the winner of the $50 Amazon Gift Card.
Posted in Blog, Make Money | 9 Comments »
