Tax Return City!

Nice! I got both my federal and state tax returns back over the past few weeks. They were substantial, relatively speaking, simply because I lost so much money, relatively speaking again , last year.

Starting a business is tough because you have to invest money into an unforeseeable future. However, I have a lot of faith in my new little business and am confident in time it will reap better rewards than the cost of the debt I've incurred.

Anyway, back to the tax returns, I've deposited them both into a high interest rate savings account. My fiance and I use Capital One Savings Bank, because they offer checking, and deliver an APY above 4%. The annoying thing about Capital One Savings Bank is their software. It is some lousy third party, which even runs on an external domain! My business bank uses the same solution, which makes storing passwords for either impossible. Though storing your bank passwords is probably not a good idea to begin with.

What we do is link our American Express One card to both our Capital One account, which has checking and a high interest rate, with our checking accounts, which have direct deposit from our employers. This is a bit round-about, but its actually not nearly as bad as it seems.

American Express has great software, so that makes it easier.

Bottles & Cans - That's MY five cents!

So just clap your hands! Yeah, returning bottles and cans is so much fun!

Maybe not, but you got to do it. Not only is it good for the environment, but you get back your own $0.05 per can and bottle.

I do this about twice a month, and it nets approximately $5.00 per month. This is about 1/4 of our electricity bill, so I keep doing it.

In Massachusetts, we call these cans "returnables" because you pay the $0.05 up front when you buy the beverage. That's why I say you are getting your own money back.

This is getting very minor, but it helps even more that we buy all our soft drinks using a credit card which gives us 5% back on our supermarket purchases, and we have 12 months of 0% interest, so we're getting a slightly better deal than just the $0.05. Its such a small amount I won't bother to calculate it. But its there, and that makes me feel better. :-)

Transfer Airline Miles for Money

With Points.com, you can transfer airline frequent flyer miles for dough!

I recently traded 9,000 American Airlines miles for $42! I trasferred the miles to NestEggz which cut the check.

Informed Banking article on how to transfer your frequent flyer miles.

I did this because right now I'm trying to convert all my resources
into cash, to generate more interest income, as well as become more liquid.

Cell Phone Karma

This morning I found a very nice Blackberry phone on the ground. This mobile phone must cost a bucket, even the service is expensive. I figured the owner was missing it, and considering someone once found this young man's wallet at the beach and turned it in to the nearby police station, I figured I ought to do the same.

I returned it to the Verizon Wireless store nearby, who said they'd get it back to the owner.

Maybe this will get me some good mobile phone karma?

Thank you Quincy!

I love Quincy. Quincy is a great place for young adults, because it is neighborly, accessible to the city, a pretty happening city itself, affordable, and big.

Today I especially love Quincy because I went to City Hall to contest a parking ticket. It was only $15, but I don't have much money these days, and I promised to never park in the wrong spot (in front of the gym) again. Its true, I won't. I parked along with a bunch of other cars in a marked zone, and figured that noone minded. I was wrong, and so I'm going to ask the gym to make it more obvious that you shouldn't park there.

Yesterday, I was also pulled over for speeding, but was given a verbal warning. Talk about luck. I try not to speed ever, but sometimes my foor gets the best of me. My time is worth a lot, but gas, insurance, and speeding ticket expenses are way more expensive.

So if you are driving on Adams Street near Furnace Brook Parkway, I advise you to SLOW DOWN! :-)

The things I bought today

I had breakfast at the Egg and I in Weymouth, a full tank of gas at Exxon, and a blueberry bagel and a small coffee from Dunkin Donuts.

• $3.25 for 2 eggs over easy and whole wheat toast and coffee
• $27.88 for gas
• $2.44 for coffee and a bagel

This is way more than I usually spend. I usually make my own coffee and lunch.

My Money Practices

When it comes to money, I'm pretty cheap these days. I used to spend money more often, but now I try and save as much as possible. I return my cans in for a refund, I clip coupons, and I even deposit my spare change into the bank!

Why? Like Ben Franklin said, "a penny saved is a penny earned!" I almost exclusively make purchases by credit card, though I do have cash in my wallet for emergencies. I also borrow as much money as I can if the interest rate is less than 5%.

Welcome!

I'm starting this blog to share my personal finance experience with the world. There are a bunch of sites out there like this and I believe they offer a lot of value to people learning about money. While I don't know everything about money, I've learned a couple useful things here and there, and maybe you will get something out of reading my posts.

Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to read my other blogs, too:

http://www.informedbanking.com/
http://chainstoremarketing.blogspot.com/
http://mandaweddingplans.blogspot.com/