Oh, where to start with this one; it is a fairly dead horse to beat, but I DID recently read it, and it DOES have to do with my blog as I’m posting anything that has to do with money, and it certainly DOES have to do with money ($7 specifically from the discount book bin at Barnes and Noble) -

Who hasn’t reviewed this book yet is more the question maybe – a Google search turns up 158,000 results and I didn’t want to read all of them so I dabbled and hopped through a few of them including:
1. GatesVP
2. MyMoneyBlog
3. Carrie Ikith
4. Steve Braun
5. IWillTeachYouToBeRich
6. SEO Books
7. Freelance Review
8. WorldWide Success
9. Business Coaching
10. Finance and Stuff
11. Ekayati
12. MunnyBagz
13. Accomplish Life

Who was my favorite? Well they all had good points to them, some people took offense to it, some people were inspired by it, me, I was a mix. When I first started it, it was my first Robert Kiyosaki book. I had no prior knowledge of him and had not known his past or who he’s worked with. I picked up the book at Barnes and Noble and actually found myself reading it there in the store with the wife and kids wandering and I finished about 30 pages, and I figured for $7 I could find some time to finish it.

I took it home and breezed through it in about 3 or 4 hours. At first I felt really inspired to read it cover to cover – I liked his ideas, and I liked where he came from and what he had learned. If nothing else, he learned to take what anyone says with a grain of salt, including his Poor Dad. Yes, it’s a “yippee, jump up and do something with your life” type book, but there is nothing wrong with that. He can write whatever he’d like, he’s in the business to make money. He’s not selling this book to make you happy; no matter what he says, he’s not writing for the joy of writing; he’s writing for the joy of $. And again, nothing wrong with that -

When I finished with the book I thought the one good thing it taught me and that I’ve stuck with is being able to FIND more money to work for you. My water bill each month is $150. How about I find a way to automatically have that paid for each month? Why do I have to use my hard earned money that I go to work to pay that bill? It’s small enough. Can I find an investment or investment vehicle that will make me that $ each month? Or how about a new car? Why should you use your current income to pay for that? Try to find a way to have it pay for itself. That’s the big piece of the pie I took away from the book.

The rest is “rah rah cheer cheer” promotional “buy my other products” babble that you kinda have to dig through. And again, nothing wrong with that. He is making a living as well, and this is one of the ways that it is done. It’s funny because he is either REALLY loved, or REALLY hated it seems. I fall in the 1% in between that is impartial. Why? Because that’s just how I am. What good does it do me to slander the guy for making a living? Is that how the “REALLY hate him” group is? Maybe I’m playing the devils advocate here (Bargaineering does this from time to time and it is interesting) and they’re just jealous that he’s successful and they’re struggling to bring in $. Maybe? He’s a successful businessman on MANY fronts and people are always attacking rich people; and honestly I think a lot of the attacks come from jealousy;

On the “REALLY love him” front though, at the same time everyone that “REALLY loves him” are overly loving of him. Standing up for him in blogs, starting blog fights about it, but, again playing the other side of the coin, don’t seem to be backed by him. It’s like having a hero, well, exactly like having a hero. You don’t want to see Superman slandered and backstabbed by Lex Luthor. Nobody wants to see that – the “REALLY lovers” get on this high horse about backing him through thick and thin while all he has ever done for them is take their money and give them a hope that they’ll make it rich someday too.

I dunno – it’s a pretty funny walk down the “blogstreet” and “forumville” to read about any of the posts because they’re always long, and always seem to end up in a fight between the “REALLY LOVE-O-SAKIS” and the “REALLY HATE-OSAKIS”. My disposition puts me in the middle and everyone likes watching a good fight, no? But this post is about the review and I give the book, as you can imagine being a middle-grounder, 4 out of 10. Why? It had some good takeaways in the investment strategy, told a decent story, and kept me entertained for 4 hours, but left me saying a few different phrases:
Yes, I know that. I know that too. That’s a good point. I don’t want to buy that. I still don’t want to buy that. I may take that in the “Free” bin at a garage sale. No. Ok, good point.

Cheers to the people that love him – feel free to let me know why you like him aside from giving advice and why you stick up for him in every forum or blog out there when he’s really done nothing for you aside from write.

And to the people that hate him – Back off and quit being jealous, unless you’re not really jealous and have a valid reason to hate a guy that’s just trying to make a living like yourselves – feel free to comment about those reasons too.

Related posts:

1. This Is How Rich People Think Differently Than Poor People
2. A Book Review: High School Money by Don Silver – And Some Tips And Tricks With Your Money
3. Why do Poor People Always Win The Lottery?

So I met with my Edward Jones rep 2 weeks ago and he informed me that my ROTH IRA is being invested 100% in NPFBX. Keep in mind, 9 months ago, my goal was to just get a ROTH IRA started again. Now that I’m a bit futher along in my journey, I figured I’d dig in on exactly what I’m was putting cash in to; starting with my 401k, and now on to my ROTH.

So obviously the first step was to assess the fund NPFBX; it looks like a good fund, over the last 5 years it has gone up 15+ points, has a decent expense ratio (1.48%) and is a 3-star on Morningstar. With my 401k I have been trying to keep the expense ratios low, and the Morningstar ratings at 4 or 5 star, so that is was initially got on my bad side. Investingating further I figured ask my rep why he’s got me in the “B” shares as opposed to the “A” shares. It essentially comes down to him telling me that he wants me to “stay in the market” for 5-10 years. I agree, I want to stay in for the long haul for sure.

So I figure we’re on the same page. So I ask him about the 5.00% back-end load the fund charges with the “B” shares. He tells me that I don’t have to worry about it if I plan on staying in the for the long haul, because I WILL be in the market for 5+ years. The “B” shares have a step down structure to keep me in the fund for at least 5 years. After this year, the back-end load will drop to about 4.25%, the next year to 3.25%, then 2.25% and 1.25% in the final year, and in the 6th year, my shares will be converted to “A” shares. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

Well, actually it does sound bad. Right now (Nove 28, 2007 @ 2:50pmPST) the “A” shares of American Funds New Perspective (ANWPX) are selling at 36.32 vs 35.51 for the “B” shares (NPFBX). They are invested in exactly the same setup of a LargeCap Blend, but with a few key differences:
1. The expense ratio on the “A” shares is 0.71% vs the “B” share of 1.48%.
2. The Overall Morningstar rating of “A” shares is 4star, vs. the 3star of “B” shares.
3. The “A” share has a frontload of 5.75%, which isn’t cool, and the “B” share has the deffered ladder dropping from 5.00%, which also isn’t cool.

I’m starting to not like the fund more and more. But I figure I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and research a little deeper to see what I can find. What is the real difference between the “A” shares and “B” shares. Isn’t it difficult enough to find what mutual funds in general to invest in? And now on top of it I have to decided, after I choose a fund, what type of shares I want? How does that work? So I did some more digging…

From the International Herald Tribune, they say the rule of thumb for shares is as follows:

A, or front-load, shares are the least costly way to own a fund, provided the investor is long-term;

B, or back-load, shares are more likely to fit a five- to seven-year time frame;

C, or level-load, shares are for short-term investors who like to trade in and out of funds.

Makes sense, but why deal with it?

Other investors take their business to fee-only advisers, who recommend portfolios of no-load funds, often with other financial-planning advice. These advisers are paid not by a fund company, but by the client. Typically, the fee is equivalent to a percentage of the client’s assets.

Not surprisingly, the array of options has left many investors at a loss as to whom they should pay, how they should pay, and for what.

I did some more digging on the differences between “A”, “B”, and “C” shares and actually found an article directly FROM an Edward Jones associate where he says:

In the US “a” share funds have a maximum 5% initial commission and a annual expense fee. “B” shares have a zero initial commission, typically a 7 year holding period and a higher annual expense fee than “a” shares. “C” shares have no initial commission, one year or less holding period and a higher annual expense fee than “a” shares.

Our [Edward Jones] feeling is that our customer at Edward Jones, the serious long term investor, is better off buying “a” share funds, paying the one time commission and getting the lower annual expense fee. Our average client holds a mutual fund 18 years. It makes good economic sense for them to hold the A shares.

In Canada because “a” share front load commissions are fully negotiable, there really isn’t the equivalent of the US “c” share.

Also, most fund groups in Canada charge the same annual expenses for their “a” or “b” shares. ie; xyz fund company Canadian growth fund A and B shares have the same annual expense charge.

The savings the fund company has on the A shares vs B shares, because they don’t have to fund the salespersons commission on A shares, like they do on B shares, they pay out in the form of a higher trailing commission to the salesperson on the A shares.

The key piece I see there is the last paragraph where he says that the FUND COMPANY (American Funds) doesn’t have to pay the seller of the share (Edward Jones rep) when they buy the “A” share. When the customer buys the “B” share, they’re paying the Edward Jones rep as well when you buy that.

AH HA! So I’m buying into the “B” shares from my reps perspective to “stay in the market for the long haul”, but in actuality, I’m buying into “B” shares to hook him up with a few extra $ off me that he’s getting instead of applying it to my best interests. A handy way of hiding it I guess.

So the next step I decided to do was to cut off the $ being sent to him and get out of that fund ASAP. But, as I’ve already invested almost $2,000 this year and it is the first year I am in it, I am going to be charged the 5% back-end load to get OUT of the fund now. Well crap, right? Not necessarily, I can just stop funding this ROTH IRA account, keep the $2,000 in there, and wait for 5 years to go by before they’re turned into “A” shares (at which time the 5.75% front load doesn’t matter, because I’ve already been in the fund before and road the step ladder from “B” share-land.

Is it worth it though to stay in for those 5 years with the 1.48% (NPFBX) expense ratio, and miss out on the 0.71% (ANWPX) expense ratio from being out of the “A” share box? Well, let’s run the numbers:
1. 1.48% of $2,000 over 5 years raking a modest 10% return would mean 8.52% real return putting it at about $3,007 over 5 years (not adding any more).
2. 0.71% of $2000 over 5 years raking a modest 10% return would mean 9.29% real return putting it at about $3,120 over 5 years (not addign any more).

No HUGE deal, $113.00 saving over the 5 years to be in the “A” share bucket, but still, that’s $113 I could put to work elsewhere. So it is probably no HUGE skin off my back to keep it in there, but I need to realize that if I were to leave that in there until retirement in 40 years for me, that $113 without adding anything more would relate to $70,119 in the “A” shares, and $52, 266 for “B” shares over that timeframe meaning $17,853 whittled away on fees for being in the “B” bucket. Furthermore, if I take out the $2000 I have in there now, I’m going to be giving the fund another 5% getting out now and giving them another $100 to pull it out and go elsewhere, ugh. I figure the best way around it is to keep the $ in there, keep the financial advisor assistance (whatever he DOES give) on board and wait 5 years to let that $ simmer. If nothing else, I keep the rep honest and onboard at the same time if I have other questions.

Right now that $2000 wasjust a bad decision overall, but a good decision to get back into the ROTH IRA realm. I should have looked elsewhere before jumping, but I jumped and ultimately this is water under the bridge, and can be tacked on to my “bad decisions I’ve made investing“. I’ll not let it happen again. I’m going to stop payments to that Edward Jones account and open up my own ROTH IRA elsewhere, and contribute, at least the rest of my ROTH amount for this year in that bucket, and heading forward doing the same. I am going to let the Edward Jones pot boil over the next 5 years, and open another ROTH likely with Charles Schwab. More on that later…

Related posts:

1. I’m Ditching My Edward Jones Deferred-Loaded, “B” Shares ROTH IRA
2. How Many ROTH IRA Accounts Can I Have Open? Can I Have Multiple?
3. A conversation with a Charles Schwab associate about funding a ROTH IRA and their options for it. (Part 1)

I got to thinking about this today after reading Hot Air’s post about how they had to pull a lottery game in the UK because the goal of the game was in reference to temperature; more specifically, negative numbers.  People were supposed to scratch the ticket and find if they had a lower number than the ticket number.  Once the numbers started getting into the negatives, people got confused:

“The Cool Cash game – launched on Monday – was taken out of shops yesterday after some players failed to grasp whether or not they had won.To qualify for a prize, users had to scratch away a window to reveal a temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card. As the game had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.

But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for some. Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6.

The story quotes player Tina Farrell, 23:

I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher – not lower – than -8 but I’m not having it.I think Camelot are giving people the wrong impression – the card doesn’t say to look for a colder or warmer temperature, it says to look for a higher or lower number. Six is a lower number than 8. Imagine how many people have been misled.

It’s slightly alarming to learn the average person on the street has difficulties with something as simple as negative numbers, though with 15.1m with poor numeracy perhaps Camelot is at fault for making it too complicated.”

Absolutely astonishing, but there is a story to be learned from it – clearly you’re not investing your money when playing the lottery and it’s not as much of a no brainer as you’d think it would be:

“In a 1999 survey by the Consumer Federation of America and financial services firm Primerica, 40% of Americans with incomes between $25,000 and $35,000 — and nearly one-half of respondents with an income of $15,000 to $25,000 — thought winning the lottery would give them their retirement nest egg. Overall, 27% of respondents said that their best chance to gain $500,000 in their lifetime is via a sweepstakes or lottery win, the survey said.”

That’s pretty sad considering that the chance of winning the Powerball is something like 1 in 140,000,000.  That is 0.0000007143% chance of winning, and think of it this way, if you buy 10,000 tickets, what does that improve your chances?  Well, move the decimal 4 places to the left and you’re now a hefty 0.0071428571% chance to strike it rich!  Buy $1,000,000 worth of tickets and you’re ALMOST to a 1% chance of winning (0.71428571%) – but you better make sure the pot is really big because it sure would be a waste of money if you had to dump $1,000,000 in lottery tickets, and it sure would be a shame to have to share that baby!

The DilbertBlog I ran across also made an interesting post about it also:

“I don’t want to accuse the Powerball people of fixing these lotteries. But I notice that the people who win are coincidentally the people who would be best for marketing future Powerball lotteries.”

Isn’t that how it is supposed to be?  It’s just called “marketing”.  What kind of chump is going to play the lottery if the only people that win it are rich people?  They’d accuse them of fixing it the OTHER way then.  Either way, I think it’s a pretty bad investment.  You’d be better off day-trading because then at least you have some chance of learning something.  In the lottery, it is 100% luck that your numbers get picked, and if you’re part of the 78% of the people that play the same family members birthdays each time, your odds of winning it all are dropping at the same rate you’re dropping the $1 per day to win the lottery.

Just as a point, instead of starting gambling at 18, if you want a nest egg, take that $1 per day and invest it instead, get 10% on your return per year, and retire like the long haul trucker at 64 with $262,000 you’ve built by NOT buying a lotto ticket…

Related posts:

1. This Is How Rich People Think Differently Than Poor People
2. My Review On Rich Dad, Poor Dad By Robert Kiyosaki
3. When The Federal Prime Rate Drops, Some People Are Happy, But The Dollar Weakens; What Happens Then?

So yesterday I got to thinking about how I would be impacting my retirement account by taking out the $2000.00 for the emergency root canal procedure I bought myself yesterday. How would that money have worked for me over the next 40 years till retirement? Well, if I would have just had that $2000.00 and never added any more too it, compounding interest (at a standard 10%) would have made me ~$78,500 by 2047! That’s the power of compounding interest! Look at the graph here (click to enlarge):

Related posts:

1. The #1 Secret To Investing…
2. Should I Use My 401k To Pay Off My Mortgage?
3. This Is How Rich People Think Differently Than Poor People

UPDATE! AGLOCO CALLS IT QUITS!

As AGLOCO™ grows and the company generates positive cash flow, we will be distributing the excess cash to Members and shareholders of the company. In addition, Members can earn cash directly in their accounts for certain transactions with AGLOCO™ sponsor sites.

So they really may not pay you out if they don’t get cooking, but IF they do, and we can help, we’d be sitting near the top of the AGLOCO chain, and all you need to do is install a non-trojan, non-virus, non-spyware advertising line on your machine and surf the same things you surf all day. You don’t need to click any of the links that show up, you don’t need to buy anything. Just let the ads show on your screen, maybe something WILL interest you and it doesn’t hurt to click it.By installing the AGLOCO web browser plug-in, you can actually earn income from regular web surfing in 4 ways:

A kickback for browsing.
Members earn a monthly share of the AGLOCO revenue based on the use of the AGLOCO Viewbar™ that month.You earn an automatic share of AGLOCO’s revenue based on the time you spend each month browsing the web with their viewbar installed. So that’s basically passive income for something you’d be doing anyway.

Company shares.
Members earn part of the company based on the use of the AGLOCO Viewbar™ that month (currently a maximum of five hours are rewarded). Click here for details. You earn shares of stock in the company based on your monthly browsing with the viewbar. That could amount to zip, or it could be something you later sell for cash.

Referral income.
Members who use our referral system to help build the AGLOCO network will earn more. (AGLOCO only has significant value as a large network and people who help build it should be rewarded. – We also feel that the early users who told friends about YouTube or MySpace or even Google probably deserved something too, but no referral system was available to record their work).You earn a bigger share of #1 and #2 by referring others to the program, much like an affiliate program. You also get some kind of bonus from the referrals of those you originally referred, hence this post,

Revenue sharing. You earn a share of the revenue whenever an AGLOCO member buys something, such as from a browser ad, an affiliate link, or by doing a search from the viewbar.

AGLOCO’s business model:

You browse the web as usual. With the AGLOCO viewbar installed, you go about your usual web surfing.

AGLOCO members buy stuff. In the course of their normal browsing activities, AGLOCO members will collectively end up clicking on ads, doing searches that show paid ads, or buying stuff via the viewbar. This doesn’t mean you as an individual have to buy anything. It’s the collective buying effect that ads up. This could very easily amount to millions of dollars in sales with a decent-sized community.

AGLOCO collects commissions. People are already spending this money online now, but when an AGLOCO member does it via the viewbar, AGLOCO collects a commission. Again, if there’s a lot of money passing through this system, this could add up to a substantial amount.

You get paid part of AGLOCO’s revenue. Based on your participation and the number of people you refer to the program, you earn a slice of the pie.

AGLOCO’s site gives you a better understand of their business model, and it seems reasonably viable to me. The basic idea is that advertisers are already spending money to reach you, such as via Adsense, paid search results, and affiliate commissions, in order to promote their products to you. AGLOCO’s business model is based on collecting and then sharing a percentage of those advertising dollars with you, the consumer.So it basically when you’re advertising on your own site. I have Google Adsense installed that I get 100% revenue from. With AGLOCO you would get a share of that money (pending they turn a profit).This is an interesting concept because it capitalizes on existing sales rather than trying to sell something new. Advertisers basically end up paying AGLOCO a commission to promote and sell their products to the AGLOCO community, and as a member of that community, you get part of the revenue.Now who’d want to be left out of such a system? Even if it’s not a lot of money and you only earn enough to buy an extra meal each year, it’s basically free money for doing what you’re already doing.

The referral game theory
AGLOCO will reward a user who gets others join AGLOCO. and works like this:

1. When user A joins AGLOCO, he will be rewarded 5 shares/month.
2. When user A gets user B to join under his name, user A will be rewarded 25% of user B shares, which is 1.25 shares/month. User B will still get his full 5 shares/month.
3. When user B refers user C, both user A and user B will be rewarded 25% of user C shares, which is 1.25 shares/month each. User C will still get 5 shares/month.
4. This will continue until 6th level of referral.

The AGLOCO hubbub has been circulating for several months now, and the viewbar was released just a few months ago but it’s still early enough to get in as an early adopter. Tens of thousands of very early adopters are already on board right now, but there’s still tremendous untapped potential out there. If AGLOCO does well, it could do really, really well; and we could get in early for $0.00 and ride the “passive income” bus to the bank.

Why should I join?

It doesn’t install any spyware – It just shows you ads in the hopes that you’ll click on something and buy something with their ad network. I click something every now and then just to support the program in the hopes it’ll take off.

It’s free - Just like the AllAdvantage setup that made me a few thousand dollars, it doesn’t cost anything and it’s not Multi Level Marketing. You don’t sell anything, and don’t have to buy anything. You won’t have to hard-sell your friends on overpriced vitamins or juice in a wine bottle. This is more like an extended affiliate program to create a very large group of users. This system basically collects a share of what people are already buying online and gives it back to the customers, similar to a rebate program.

It only takes a couple minutes to sign up – You fill out a simple form on their site, and you’re in. Then you just install the viewbar when it’s released. They give you a referral link you can use to refer others if you want. I’m using my referral link in all the AGLOCO links in this post, so if you click one of my links and sign up, you’ll automatically become part of my network of referrals. Whether you want to do that or not is entirely up to you.

High potential upside with low risk - If AGLOCO goes bust and never pays anyone, you’ll have wasted a few minutes, and you can call me an idiot for telling you about it. But if the system works, and you get in today, you stand to gain a lot more than someone who joins a year from now, especially if you refer others and put time on your side. You get some credit for your extended referrals too (those referred by the people you directly referred), so you may refer only`3 or 4 people but end up with a network of dozens if someone in your network does a lot of referring. I always like making these kinds of bets because the downside risk
is neglible, but the potential upside is huge if it works.

I suggest you take a few minutes to visit AGLOCO’s site, and if you think this idea has potential, sign up for a free account. At this time their site is pretty straightforward and uncomplicated, so feel free to dig around and see if their business model makes sense to you. If so, sign up. If not, scratch it. I think the biggest “pro” I see of it is the low risk (nothing) and possible high return (free $$$).

If you do sign up, feel free to add me as your referral (just click any of the many references to it in this blog or type in my referral ID when the time comes: BBHP2101). I’ll be grateful and certain to give you links back to your site, and who knows, we could be in at the ground floor making big $$$. If not big $$$, at least free and easy $$$ for our initial down payment of what? Oh yea, $0.00…

Related posts:

1. AGLOCO is calling it quits -
2. Is PayPerPost worth your time to build another income stream? Or is it like selling out to “The Man”?
3. Another Way To Make Money Online; Courtesy Of Microsoft…

I have been rolling this one over for a bit now and wondering where it fits in my investment path. I just got back from a trip to Australia and probably 3-4 months ahead of it I asked myself the worst case scenario. What happens to my kids? What happens to my house, cars, cat, dog, bad paintings, gym socks, 1984 Casio calculator watch in my underwear drawer? Well, not all of those, but a few of them… So I decided to look into it a bit beforehand…

If you DON’T have a Will, odds are your kids will be taken care of. The court isn’t going to send them to a foster home if you have family willing to take them. The court is cold and cruel, but not that cruel. So if you have brothers, sisters, grandmothers willing to take them, they’ll probably be alright.

As far as your assets though, they can bounce around for months or even years till they find a proper home depending on what you’re worth. Principality.co.uk actually has a good flowchart of what will happen to your assets upon “expiration”.  But they don’t add in the timeframe that you’re looking at for the entire procedure to bounce its way through court.  Again, if you’re dirt poor though and don’t have anything worth fighting for, you probably don’t have to worry.  The chicken scratches on the napkin should suffice.  Another good splurge of info from the United Kingdom was here.

In the unfortunate event of intestacy, many people believe the Government takes their assets if they die without a Will. This isn’t true. It could only happen if you have no living next of kin. However, if you die without a Will, your assets will be distributed according to a legal formula. This might mean that your assets do not end up with the person you would have chosen, but may end up like this (courtesy of RCW 11.04.015).  Basically it means that your assets become “community property” or “separate property“.  By default in some states, without a valid Will and testament everything is community property.

Without a valid Last Will and Testament, the legalities can take months or sometimes even years. Until that time comes though, your surviving spouse or partner could be in a financial bind with the household, weekly, monthly, and daily bills to find and they will probably be on a reduced income.  They don’t want to worry about how you’re going to make it to the final resting place. Your surviving spouse or partner may not have access to money needed for expenses he or she would normally have a right to, because the assets could be frozen until all the formalities have been sorted out.

Long story fairly short (not too short, but not overly long either), you should have a Last Will and Testament somewhere in your mix if you’re worth anything and/or have children.  You’re going to make it a lot less stressful if you take an early “dirt nap”.  I have to admit that I didn’t craft one up before I left for my trip because they can be fairly expense, I was quoted 3 times between $800-$1400 and I wanted to make sure I had the funds for the trip beforehand.  But it is in the plans once we’ve settled back in and are back in the black (after paying ourselves first with our retirement portfolio), which is likely beginning of the year 2008.

One other caveat I looked into, as I have my ROTH IRA through Edward Jones, is a Transfer On Death agreement.  The T.O.D. is basically an abbreviated Will and Trust that legally allocates your funds within that firm (I don’t know if other firms offer this, please chime in if this is the case).  So I had a money market and my ROTH that would have been figured out without a will for $75.00.  Which is a much cheaper price than the $800-$1400 bill I was quoted earlier.  Unless this form works also, and I can hide it next to my fancy calculator Casio wristwatch  to cover myself in the future – anyone have any insight on printing one off the internet?  Is that valid?  I couldn’t find any info on it -

If anyone has any advice or recommendations of a good place to sign up for a Will for less than $800, drop me a line, I would certainly be “willing” to sit down and chat about it with them -  

Ending on a comical note, I ran across this joke in my search to find all the dirt on Wills…

No related posts.

So the past 4 weeks I’ve been waiting for a job offer to come through. It is in a different department, but in the same company. I’ve interviewed a 3rd time and talked with the hiring manager on several occasions stating that everything SHOULD be in proper order. The salary will fit, the position title fits, my current manager is aware of it, all was going well. So I sat waiting patiently assuming it to be 20-25% more with a 15% bonus structure. It came through Friday at a 12% bump and NO change on the bonus structure (still 10%)!

At first I was amazed at the fact the recruiter delivered the message and was telling me that I was really getting a good deal and that they spoke highly of me and couldn’t wait to get me started. I assume that is part of his responsibility though, tout up the job and make me feel comfortable in it. I have nothing wrong with that, but I was severly unexcited about it – He mentioned that “anything above a 10% bump is a VERY good deal” and that “I should be very excited they’re willing to offer me this.”

Contrary to popular belief, I told him I’d have to think about it over the weekend, and as I was 80% sure I was going to take the job anyway but needed some time to think it over. In discussing it with the wife, I ran across quite a few sites that had some good information on deciding on job offers.
VT.edu had some good insight into it from here.
Penelope Trunk had some good points on it here. Be nice, follow up, suggest someone else, and assess your own conduct. Very valid.
Secrets of the Job hunt said this, but was seeing it from the other side of the table – REGRETTING saying no, I hoped my gut was telling me correctly here -

The weekend actually gave me some good time think about my priorities. This job was a job that I didn’t know a lot about, but the hiring manager really liked my ability to follow through with projects and get people in order to complete the job; so saw potential in my leadership skills. But is that the position you want to go in a position? I have no qualms with my current salary. Like most people, I think I could use a raise, but aside from that, I’m quite happy doing what I do. It pays me enough for the mortgage, bills, and keeps food on the table!

I jotted down the pros and cons of the situation with my wife. It’s always nice to brainstorm pros and cons with someone else. Like they always say 2 heads are better than one. Especially when deciding something like this that could have some serious repercussions if not thought out properly – Would I want to make a counter-offer? What amount would make me move over there if the offer DID come back properly? The more I got to thinking about it, the more the 80% probability of taking the job dropped. Even if I was to get 30-35% raise and the 15% bump, would it be worth it to through your current leverage out the window? I basically would be starting from scratch, but in management – it would take me 2-3 years to fully grasp what I was doing. I could better manage my time by using what I had now and blossoming it into something that may lead to a better opportunity later. I decided to just decline the offer and not waste time with a counter-offer they couldn’t meet anyway.

So my dilemma now was to decide the best way not to burn the bridge of the recruiting manager. Penelope Trunk has some good info for that:
“When you turn down a job, thank the person for the opportunity. Tell the person that something about them or their company impressed you. Think of something, even if it’s small. Just make sure you are specific, because that’s the type of compliments that matter most to people.”

I tried to find a way to best let the manager down, and buttering them up before the big bomb is always a good recommendation. Don’t make them feel like you’re rejecting them as a person, but the job itself. Don’t make the ordeal personal, it’ll bite you in the end because later on down the line, you might be in a position to move into that group later. Networking is one of the best skills you can have in your toolbox. Use it wisely, and don’t toss it on the bridge that you may be burning -

Related posts:

1. How Do You Graciously Decline a Job Offer? (revised repost)

I recently got my bill in the mail from Travelers Insurance. I went with them because when I called up Geico to renew my auto insurance, they mentioned they cut a deal with these guys to give me the best deal on homeowners insurance. But did they? I own a fairly new house (it’s a year old) and am slated to pay $1,043.00 for the upcoming year to cover:

Also last week I got a quote in the mail from Allstate saying they could cut it for HALF the price with this quote:

Who is the real deal here? My house is about 2700 sq ft. 2 story, built in Nov 2006, 5 bed, bonus, 2.5 bath, nothing out of the ordinary, in a good area, not in a flood plain, not subject to high winds or fire zones. What do you pay for homeowners insurance? Do you have a better deal? A better recommendation? Certainly I’d like to re-invest that extra $500.00 per year in a better place, but I don’t want to get bent over in regards to payments – ideas? Suggestions?

Related posts:

1. How Much Insurance Should I Have On My House?
2. Looks like I’m going with Allstate Insurance
3. Is Investing In Life Insurance Really “Investing”?

I have a $500,000 whole life insurance policy with Hartford Mutual that I pay $200/month to keep up. $8.50 goes to the administrative fee, $100 for the actual coverage itself and the remaining $90.00 goes into the mutual fund. I’ve had it for about 4 years now and I have almost $8,000 in the mutual fund ITHAX which, by my recent inquiry wasn’t directly based on that number, but didn’t have an exact number as to how that $ was being divided; another one of the reasons I’m starting to follow up on my investments!

But based on my first payment to them in 2004, I have paid $7380 to them and the balance is at $8103 today meaning I have made $723 from them in the 4 years there, a measly $181 per year!

I wanted to get into saving when I was younger and it sounds like I may have been roped into the Whole Life insurance that I don’t need. 80% of that $ goes to the Advisor that sells it to you in the first year and maybe 2 years. So really I have only been making money the last 2 years. The expense ratio is 1.18% so that knocks it down even more – Dear God, what have I done!

But I HAVE read that it isn’t a bad investment if you get into it young – I have $100,000 policies out for my 2 kids and that only costs me $25/month. The pros are that the premium is never going to change, so the kids will have those policies forever and they’ll do nothing but grow (unless the world ends) – similarly, my $200/month policy won’t change either, and it is approaching 500k. In 30 years, I imagine it’s going to be around a million+ – so IS it really a bad investment? I’ve stumbled through the first 4 years (which are supposed to be the “bad” years of the Whole Life Insurance phase, so what now? Is it worth it?

I’ve read pros and cons to the situation all over, mostly cons unfortunately. One of the best cases are from CNN Money which says on: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/lesson20 plenty on it – and how to shop for what you need. I highly recommend anyone take a look at it -

So the next question is what do I do about my policy now? Do I stick with it? It IS making me $ on my investment, which is good, but people say that I can put it elsewhere. It costs me money to cancel the policy and I can bet my bottom dollar that I’m going to take a chunk off that amount if I cancel the policy. Is that worth it?

I can afford the insurance at $200, and it will never go up on me, but my policy DOES increase in value. I orignally bought a 450k policy on it, and it is pushing 500k. What’s a guy to do?

Another interesting article is: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=354597, which says:

“In sales presentations you tend to put everything in the best light,” Zickert said. “The idea of buying life insurance to gain wealth can work very well, but you have to make sure (the money for the premiums) is excess money you don’t really need.”

and that makes sense as well – where does that leave a person? Does anyone reading this invest in any life insurance, any ideas/suggestions?

Related posts:

1. Goodbye To My Universal Life Insurance From Hartford Mutual
2. Does My Beneficiary Have To Pay Taxes On My Life Insurance Policy When I Die?
3. How Do I Plan To Reach My Investing Goals For Retirement?

So in regards to my post How Much Is Too Much I have been back and forth with my possible new insurance agent, and she has offered me an interesting tidbit:

“…regarding the home, currently you have it insured for $516,000.  Home insurance covers the dwelling itself and not the land because in the event of a total loss, the land would still be there. We use a system where I input all the information about your home and it calculates a dwelling coverage amount.  The cost to rebuild a home is approximately $120 per square foot which comes out to $324,000.  Our calculator came out to $320,000 so your current coverage of $516,000 is more than sufficient.  I would recommend insuring it for $330,000.”

What does this mean?  Well, basically that I have been paying for 500k of insurance when really I wouldn’t need that.  In the event of total destruction, you still own the land your house sits on, and THAT shouldn’t be harmed in the horrible event of total destruction.  That property would still carry a value and shouldn’t need to be insured.  It might be worth pinging your insurance agency to see if you’re paying too much for homeowners insurance.

Related posts:

1. How Much Is Too Much For Homeowners Insurance?
2. Should I Take Out A Reverse Mortgage On My House?
3. Looks like I’m going with Allstate Insurance