My New Year Resolutions

Ok, here they are in random order: 

• Get my wife a new car – Not sure what we are gonna do here, I really enjoy not having a car payment since both of out cars are paid for. But I would really like the space of a SUV. My wife only works about 3 miles from our home so gas milage isn’t a big issue, but SUV’s just tend to cost more because they can. 
• Lose about 20 pounds – Yes I know this is the sterotypical resolution, but I really would like to get back in shape where I was a few years ago. I signed up again for the Nutrisystem diet. I used it about 5 years ago and lost 25 pounds, so I know it works I just need the disclipine. Right now they are having a promo where you get 14 days of free food plus free shipping, so I thought now is the time to get going on this! Here’s some info on the program for any one interested: Get 14 days free plus FREE shipping
• Start running again – Yes this goes hand in hand with the previous one, but since I have this nice treadmill that doubles as a clothes rack, I need to start getting my money out of it!!
• Paint the house. Since we moved in we have only painted 2 rooms. I would like to get ever room painted since everything is still white. And it is that builders off white, so it is a dirty white, which is somewhat depressing! Ace Hardware has the new crop of Pottery Barn colors in, so I will definetly stop by and take a look.
• Spend less time working at my boring IT job and use more of that time to start my own business – This is a big one since I really don’t know what kind of business I would start. But working 60 hours a week at my current job isn’t gonna help me get any closer!!!
• Make More Free Money Online – This is more like an everyday reolution!! 

Other than the start your own business thing, I think these are mostly attainable. We’ll see how it goes, since right now I am starving and all I want to do is watch TV and eat!!!

My Favorite Christmas Gift

The best thing I got for Christmas from my wife was a bluetooth headset. With little suggestive hints, she got me the .

It is a little bluetooth device with a built-in mic that essentially acts as a hands free headset that pairs up with your cellphone, computer, etc. What makes this thing uniquie is that I can plug any headset into it, or anything with a standard herdphone jack. With most bluetooth headsets you are at the mercy of whatever ear piece they give you (It does come with a set of stereo headphones if you don’t have any). I am mainly going to use this to play music wirelessly from my cell phone to my car, since I can plug this device into my audio in jack in my car. I have a cell phone with a built in MP3 player so now I can listen to those songs in my car without one of those FM transmitters, using bluetooth instead.

What is also cool about this device is that when hooked up to my car stereo, when I get a call, the music mutes and the callers voice can be heard over my car speakers. I was always having issues hearing people with my little in-the-ear headset that never got loud enough, but routing the call through the car speakers makes that no longer a problem. It also has an LED display which shows the caller id of the incoming call or the current playing song. It charges with a mini-usb, so you can charge it in the wall or just connect it to your pc and it charges. From a form perspective, it is in the shape of a clamp, so you can clip it onto your shirt pocket or collar so it is easy to take with you and it only weighs 22 grams. Very little genious gadget this is!!! I don’t think my wife will be able to out do herself next Christmas!!

What did you get for Christmas?

So now that Christmas is over and you have re-gifted yourself with what you really wanted, what is the verdict?

I ended up getting mostly Amazon Gift Cards. I wasn’t upset since this was actually what I asked for. I chose Amazon since you can get almost anything from there. If I asked for Best Buy or something similiar I am limited only to electronics, which I can get on Amazon anyway if I want.

I did get a $25 Lettuce Entertain you gift card which will probably go up on eBay shortly!!! eBay, by the way is a great way to get rid of unwated gift cards. I will be doing a post shortly on it, so keep checking back.

Ok, so on to my main point here, I was at my friends this morning helping him move in a new desk and I saw that he got this:

LEGO Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon

This thing is awesome. It has over 5000 pieces and according to the product details the ship is over 33″ long, 22″ wide and 8″ tall! It even has motorized moving parts. I wonder how long it is going to take him to build that thing.

Now I wouldn’t have minded getting that for Christmas! My wife screwed up there, it would have kept me out of her hair for days!!!

Another Free $50 From Sharebuilder

 

Sharebuilder has brought back its $50 new account promo.

Very simple to get: Open a new ShareBuilder Individual, Joint or Custodial Account by 1/15/2008, and we’ll contribute $50 to your investment after you place your first trade.  

I currently use sharebuilder for my ETF funds. They are purchased every week and I just let it go If you haven’t used sharebuilder, they are great in the fact that you can buy partial shares automatically over time. This is a great way to dollar cost average especially considering the volatility in the market recently. They will automatically take the money out of your account and invest in on a regular basis, it pretty much makes investing easy to do.

Sharebuilder $50 Promo Signup Link

I don’t recommend a sharebuilder account if you are going to be an active seller, take a look at Tradeking (see post) ot OptionsXpress (see post) as they have lower commissions. I consider Sharebuilder a buy and hold account.

TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus is Back!

EDIT: This promotion has ended. Their latest promo can be found HERE.

Looks like TradeKing is again offering a $50 bonus when opening new accounts.

 Here is the skinny:

• New accounts must be opened and funded with $2,500 through the following link:
• A minimum balance of $1,000 is required in the account for the first six months
• Must Make 1 Trade in your account
• Bonus paid up to 180 days after executed trade

If this is like the last TradeKing Promo, you will see the $50 bonus paid in less than a week after your first trade, rather then the “up to 180 days” There is no expiration date on this so I imagine it could disappear at any time. So jump on this one before it is gone!

Happy Trading and collecting that free money!

Yodlee Review

 For the past 6 months or so I have been using Yodlee.com and I thought I would do a short review.

Yodlee is an account aggregator which lets you see all your account balances and transactions in one place. So I can see my Mortgage, Credit Cards, Bank Accounts, Retirement Accounts, utility bills, etc all on one screen. This makes checking balances very easy as I can see everything at once without having to log into various accounts. Even better is the fact that it is free! There is an “update accounts” button that lets you update all your account balances all at the same time. You also have access to an “auto login” button which can take you right into that account if you need more detail.

Yodlee will list the most recent transactions for each account, so you can keep an eye on the current happenings of each account you have setup. One thing I use this for is that I have a lot of credit card accounts that are open but I don’t use. Yodlee lets me see their balances at a glance to make sure there is no unauthorized charges going on.

Yodlee allows you to set up alerts on threshold balances so you can track when there is activity on a certain account via email. This is great when account balances are getting low, or you are close to a credit card limit.

They also offer a Bill Pay Feature which essentially lets you pay your bills for any accounts you have set up on Yodlee. So, for example, if you have 2 credit card accounts set up on Yodlee and you want to pay your electric bill, Yodlee’s bill pay interface will let you choose which account you want to use to pay the bill. No more retyping your card number since everything is already stored here. The best feature is that there is a little section on your dashboard that lists all your upcoming bills with the bill amount , minimum amount due (for credit cards) and date due. This is a great way to keep from paying things late since you have a quick snapshot of everything.

Yodlee sells this under other names such as Fidelity Full View, HSBC Easy View, etc. So it is a well established product with some big name customers. If you have an account at HSBC or Fidelity you should have access to it. I prefer to use Yodlee.com since they tend to get the updates before they are rolled out to other sites. I guess you could call it a “Beta” site. I have been with them for over 6 months and have not had any issues. They also have a support forum where you can request anything from help to the addition of new accounts. They also roll out new features and new accounts all the time.

Yodlee.com has been an invaluable tool for me since I have so many accounts. I can easily see what is going on on a daily basis as well as get a picture of my networth easily. I also use it to track what bills are due when since my desk at home is an absolute mess! I check my Yodlee account once a day and don’t know what I would do without it!

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