Lazy Man — P2P No Bank

Piqqem: Crowdsourcing Stock Picks

November 20th, 2008 — , Review, crowdsourcing, stock market predictions, stock market shares, stock predictions, wisdom of crowds from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Last week, I was contacted by Piqqem. Then wanted to tell me about their service and get my thoughts.
I have to admit that I didn’t find the Piqqem site that interesting. I love the idea of crowdsourcing, but it seems to me that the stock market is already and efficient system. By [...]

Matt Furey: 101 Ways To Magnetize Money

November 18th, 2008 — , Book Review, magnetize money, matt furey, power of positive thinking, psycho ex girlfriend from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Publishers send me books all the time. When I decide to read a book, I earn my Lazy Man moniker by choosing the thinnest book in my pile. Today that book is Matt Furey’s 101 Ways To Magnetize Money a book that you may be able to through in about 60-90 minutes.
The first [...]

Ask The Readers: Evaluating a Gym Membership

November 17th, 2008 — , Health, Lazy Man, cardio machines, elliptical trainers, gym membership, low impact, personal trainer, weights, workout from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

A few years back, I had a gym membership. I always wanted a place where I can go and lift some weights do a little treadmiling… you know the stuff that I don’t nearly write often enough over at Lazy Man and Health. When my wife and I moved into my current apartment [...]

Weekend Personal Finance Links (sore muscle edition)

November 16th, 2008 — , Uncategorized from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

My wife persuaded me to go her gym’s Body Pump class yesterday. Not only was my ego hurt by the women doing heavier weights more times than me, but even my finger muscles hurt. That being the case, I’m going to cut right to the chase and get you the links.
From The Money [...]

Five Thoughts To My Future Children…

November 13th, 2008 — , Deep Thoughts, education, happiness, money, time from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

I got the latest edition of Money Magazine yesterday, and Pat Regnier in his The Bottom Line column used the letter to his children as a literary device. It’s not unique (I’ve even written a letter to my high school self in the past), but nonetheless, I thought the idea was worth stealing flattering [...]

How $100 Could Save Your Child’s Life

November 12th, 2008 — , jason mckie, jim kelly, kurt warner, leukodystrophy, monday morning, nfl player, parenting, professional football, rare brain disease, starbucks, super bowls from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Regular readers know that I have an affinity for professional football. Sometimes I take it much too seriously. I’m not proud of it, but that’s why they call us fanatics, right? Every Monday, one of my favorite writers, Peter King, comes out with an article about all the happenings around the NFL. [...]

Alternative Income Streams - November 2008

November 11th, 2008 — , Alternative Income, advertising marketplace, affiliate advertising, cpm, market downturn, page views, profits from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Due to my early retirement series (which seemed to go over like a lead balloon I think) last week, I’m late in delivering my alternative income report that I usually deliver the first of the month.
This month I saw a small downturn in advertising. Some forms of advertising are going away completely [...]

Military: Free Applebee’s Tonight… Maybe…

November 10th, 2008 — , Random thoughts, active duty, applebee, fiesta, free food, gift horse in the mouth, lime chicken, mike archer, oriental chicken salad, participating restaurants, quesadilla burger, state of california, veteran, wildfire, yuma arizona from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

UPDATE: I want to take a minute and thank Patrick Lenow, Executive Director, Communications of DineEquity, Inc. (parent company of Applebee’s), for commenting and setting the record straight about this promotion being a trial. This post probably reflected some portion of my feeling that the sour grapes of seeing one city having 3 [...]

Lazy Man Politics Policy (and personal finance links)

November 9th, 2008 — , Links, charitable contributions, personal finances, political environment, social security administration, windfall elimination provision from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

You may have noticed that I didn’t mention much about politics in the last few weeks. My reasoning for this isn’t that it doesn’t effect your personal finances. It’s just that I believe people can be financially successful in any kind political environment in the United States.
I hear a lot about [...]

Our Early Retirement Plan: Motivation, Numbers & Tools, and Conclusion (Part 5)

November 7th, 2008 — , Retirement, early retirement, frugal lifestyle, military charts, military pension, personal income, retirement nest egg, retirement plan, retirement planners from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

If you are just starting this, I suggest you start at The Introduction - Part 0. Alternatively, you can jump to Our Early Retirement Plan: Where We Are Now (Part 1), Our Early Retirement Plan: My Personal Income (Part 2), Our Early Retirement Plan: My Wife’s Plan (Part 3), or Our Early Retirement Plan: [...]

Our Early Retirement Plan: Obstacles and Expenses (Part 4)

November 6th, 2008 — , Retirement, cost effective solution, day care, early retirement, frugality, health care, personal income, retirement plan, stay at home dad from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

If you are just starting this, I suggest you start at The Introduction - Part 0. Alternatively, you can jump to Our Early Retirement Plan: Where We Are Now (Part 1), Our Early Retirement Plan: My Personal Income (Part 2), or Our Early Retirement Plan: My Wife’s Plan (Part 3).
In part 2, I explained [...]

Our Early Retirement Plan: My Wife’s Plan (Part 3)

November 5th, 2008 — , Retirement, cost of living adjustment, early retirement, income tax, military pension, pensions, pharmacist, reno nevada, retirement plan, san francisco california from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

If you are just starting this, I suggest you start at The Introduction - Part 0. Alternatively, you can jump to Our Early Retirement Plan: Where We Are Now (Part 1) or Our Early Retirement Plan: My Personal Income (Part 2).
Before I start, I should come clean. I’m going to be putting some [...]

Our Early Retirement Plan: My Personal Income (Part 2)

November 4th, 2008 — , Retirement, Small Business, freedom, income, money making opportunities from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

If you are just starting this, I suggest you start at The Introduction - Part 0. Alternatively, you can jump to Our Early Retirement Plan: Where We Are Now (Part 1).
My income and my wife’s income are dramatically different from most people. I don’t have a 9-5 job. Yesterday I mentioned how [...]

Our Early Retirement Plan: Where We Are Now (Part 1)

November 3rd, 2008 — , Retirement, investment property, necessary expenses, savings account, start up business from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

If you are just starting this, I suggest you start at The Introduction - Part 0
You can’t figure out where you are going if you don’t know where you are…
My wife and I are each 32 years old. To some degree our finances are separate - we never felt the need to combine them [...]

Our Early Retirement Plan: Introduction (Part 0)

November 3rd, 2008 — , Retirement, retirement plan, retirement planning from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

I thought I’d switch things up this week and write about our retirement plan for the future. It’s going to be detailed, so I’ll have an article one day each week.
I need to get a few things out of the way:

Retirement planning at age 32 is a shot in the dark - [...]

Weekend Links: Get Your Cheap Halloween Candy Edition

November 2nd, 2008 — , Links, emergency fund, free savings accounts, moving expenses, retirement accounts from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Twice a year, I try to remind you that there’s going to be big sales on candy. These two times are after Halloween and after Easter - conveniently about 6 months apart.
Having gotten that out of the way here are some links that I liked this week:

Blip Blap [...]

How I Saved Money on a New Laptop

October 31st, 2008 — , Save Money On..., dell outlet, laptop, notebook, productivity gains, save money from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Earlier this week I bought a new laptop. My currently laptop is around 3 years old and it’s starting to show it’s age. It has 768MB of memory, much less than many computers have nowadays. When I have my 700 Firefox tabs open, it really slows down to a crawl. I [...]

Eligible People Not Getting Food Stamps?

October 29th, 2008 — , Food, donating to charity, food stamps, impetus, pride, urban areas from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Today on the news I heard that 67.8 percent of eligible people in 24 large urban areas studied participated in the program in 2006. While it would be interesting to know if more people are taking advantage now, the data isn’t there. I can’t think of an impetus for why the they’d suddenly [...]

Credit Karma’s Credit Simulator (and Other Credit Tools)

October 28th, 2008 — , Uncategorized from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Last April, I went to Finovate Startup in San Francisco. I was introduced to around 40 companies at the time, and I met a number of their founders personally. One of them was Credit Karma. You may remember that in the past, I told you how you can get, free credit scores [...]

Five Questions I Ask Myself Before Making a Purchase

October 27th, 2008 — , Smart Purchases, productivity gains, quality of life from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

When I was learning to drive, my mom decided she would teach me herself to make sure that I was well educated and wouldn’t get in an accident when I was of age to get my license. She told me to be the key in the ignition and turn the car on. Check. [...]

Cassel Does Not Stand on Pillars of Sand (and weekend links)

October 26th, 2008 — , Uncategorized from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Last Sunday, the Red Sox lost game seven of the American League Championship Series. I remember thinking, the worst part is that my sports experience over the next 6 months will be watching Matt Cassel. The Patriots had just gotten destroyed by San Diego ad the injuries were starting to pile up on [...]

My Friend is Brainwashed by Get Rich Quick Schemes, Help!

October 24th, 2008 — , Buffy, MonaVie, Multi-level Marketing, Psychology, amway, get rich quick from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

I got a very interesting e-mail this morning… almost 1800 words. I wrote a 1700 word article earlier this week (probably my longest ever) and I can say that writing that much takes a long time.
The emailer, who I will call Buffy, has a friend, who I will call Faith, who had [...]

Why Didn’t Anyone Teach Me This Review

October 22nd, 2008 — , Book Review, david newby from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

It’s not often that I do a book review. Though it seems that at least once a month some author’s marketing team sends me a new book, I almost never get around to them. The biggest reason is that I’m an extremely slow reader and most books would take me 8 hours to [...]

What Happened to Prosper on Lazy Man?

October 21st, 2008 — , P2P Lending, asset class, debt to income ratios, delinquencies, experian data, loans, mortgage lenders, peer to peer lending, personal finance from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Last week, Get Rich Slick asked the question, What Happened To All The Prosper.com Blogs? Two years ago, along with RateLadder, I probably wrote about Prosper more than most personal finance bloggers. So when RichSlick asks why the blogs have seemingly gone silent, I feel that I should stand up and answer.
Here are [...]

Red Sox Lose Game 7 = Ouch (and weekend links)

October 20th, 2008 — , Links, finance tips, leverage your good credit, tips for buying a house, top 10 ways to save money, ways to save money from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Anytime the Red Sox season ends without a champagne shower, I get a little sad. I probably wouldn’t be as sad if they were a .500 team. It’s not often in your life, when your hometown team can contend at a high level for a number of years. When you find yourself [...]

I Saved $150 on a Samsung 32? Television by Accident

October 17th, 2008 — , Smart Purchases, circuit city, costco, progressive scan, samsung, televisions from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Last week, my wife said, “I think it’s about time that we got a second television in the apartment.” From time to time, I’ve been known to tune out what she’s saying, but this time my ears perked up. Hmm, I think I can sanction the purchase of a television.
Here are [...]

Six Reasons to Love This Economy (Really. I’m Serious!)

October 16th, 2008 — , alan greenspan, cheap oil, credit markets, down economy, economy, negativity from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

“Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door… all the negativity that’s in this town sucks… And it stinks.” - Rick Pitino
Any Celtics fan, and many NBA fans, remember this famous rant from Rick Pitino. He [...]

Blog Action Day: Thoughts on Poverty

October 15th, 2008 — , charity, homeless, personal finance, poverty, third world countries from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

(Last year, I decided to join the crowd and post about Blog Action Day’s topic, saving the environment. This year the cause for Blog Action Day is poverty. As a personal finance blogger, I felt that it would border on irresponsibility to not join the cause. One of the charities they suggest [...]

Zopa US is Dead

October 15th, 2008 — , Uncategorized from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

I hope you really like to hear about peer-to-peer lending news. Earlier today, I wrote about how Lending Club opened for business again and just before Prosper died (not in the traditional sense, just closed it’s doors for a potentially “several months” while it passes a few steps with the SEC).
However, I really wanted [...]

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Prosper is Dead

October 15th, 2008 — , Lenders, P2P Lending, Prosper, mortgages, peer to peer lending from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Just a few hours after I received an e-mail from Lending Club announcing that they were open again, Prosper sent an e-mail saying that they were beginning their quiet period. This is just over 6 months after Lending Club entered it’s quiet period. I believe that Lending Club got out of it’s quiet [...]

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Lending Club Opens For Business Again

October 15th, 2008 — , Lenders, P2P Lending, liquidity, peer to peer lending from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Lending Club has opened for business again. They come back with a partnership from FOLIOfn. This partnership, as I understand it (and I could be wrong here), seems to have sped up their process with the SEC. It also allows them to have a secondary market - a place where you can [...]

Every Restaurant Wants to Save Me Money

October 14th, 2008 — , Frugal, denny's, kellogg, kfc, sizzler, walmart from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

I couldn’t help but notice restaurants have a new plan to try to drum up business in these tough times. It’s a good thing they have some ideas, because one of the first things people cut when money is tight is going out to eat. Let’s look at what just a few national [...]

Rationally Irrational

October 13th, 2008 — , Psychology, ben stein, child predators, chris hansen, hard earned money, index fund, retirement accounts, wilshire 5000 from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

A friend called me up last night. He was open about how spooked he was when he looked his retirement accounts and found that 30% (or more) of his hard-earned money had disappeared - with nothing to show for it. The way he put it, I really couldn’t argue with him. It [...]

Weekend Links - New Kids On The Block Edition

October 12th, 2008 — , Links, boston celtics, budget system, doctor salaries, free credit scores, new kids on the block, red sox playoff game from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

On Friday, I took one for the team and went with my wife to the New Kids on The Block Edition. Normally, I wouldn’t mind too much, but I had to give up seeing the end of the Red Sox playoff game. When you watch something around 120 regular season games, you kind [...]

Getting Ready to Buy Some Stock

October 9th, 2008 — , Investing, earnings, money, stock market, stocks from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Wednesday my wife said, “You know we have a lot of cash sitting around, we should start to invest it while everything is cheap.” It’s amazing how I can write about this stuff everyday, while she spends about 4 minutes a year on it, and we both come to the same conclusion. Then [...]

The Worst Gifts We Have Ever Gotten

October 9th, 2008 — , Dumb Purchases, bananas in pyjamas, garfield, gift horse in the mouth, gifts, hallmark store, irish catholic family from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Sometimes I have an idea for a particular article and I have think twice, before broaching the topic. Today, I thought about it four times. What kind of ungrateful turd I must be to talk about getting bad gifts! I firmly believe in not looking a gift horse in the mouth. [...]

Can You Plan for Unexpected Expenses?

October 7th, 2008 — , Insurance, early retirement, emergency funds, financial emergency, health care, life insurance, worst case scenario from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

When I think about the unexpected financial expenses the first thing that comes to mind is emergency funds. Most of the experts agree that having 6 months of income set aside for a financial emergency is necessary. In my head, that financial emergency is almost always the loss of a job. Perhaps [...]

Jim Cramer: Sell Your Stocks

October 6th, 2008 — , Investing, ann curry, economists, jim cramer, stock market from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

While watching the Today Show this morning I was very surprised by Jim Cramer’s words. He said it is time to get out of the stock market (note: huge caveat follows). Economists almost always say to stay the course and not to panic. Plus we know that when the market is down, [...]

Alternative Income Streams - October 2008

October 3rd, 2008 — , Alternative Income, Australia, dividend income, ebay, start up business, thailand from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Another month is done and it’s time to take a look at my alternative income for the previous month. In past months, I’ve given a number that was very specific, down to the cents. This month, I can’t be as specific - the power cord on my laptop is broken, so I have [...]

Loanio Launches!

October 1st, 2008 — , P2P Lending, co borrower, interest rates, negative interest, peer to peer lending from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

In a release so delayed that it made the latest installments of Rocky and Indiana Jones seem like nothing, Loanio has launched. If you go back to the darkest corner of your memory you may remember that Loanio announced it will be a peer-to-peer lending company intending to compete with Prosper and Lending Club. [...]

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Working Two Jobs at the Same Time

October 1st, 2008 — , Alternative Income, Income Streams, career, full time job, loyalty, pensions, social security from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

CNN has an article that I find extremely interesting… some employees are working two jobs at the same time. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. People are so used to multitasking nowadays that it’s hard to imagine people not working two jobs at the same time. I’m not much different. [...]

Getting Answers To Your Financial Questions

September 30th, 2008 — , Ask the Readers, interest only loan, interest only loans, jonathan papelbon, zillow from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Every so often, I get questions from readers. I’d love to get more (contact me) but sometimes the questions I do get deal with topics that are a little outside my level of expertise. When this happens, I often try to direct the person to place that I think can help them find [...]

Three Ridiculous and Stupid Ideas that Save You Money

September 29th, 2008 — , Humor, beer budget, blood alcohol content, gas mileage, getting drunk, hypermiling, pancake, pirate, stupid, wind resistance from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

While all of my posts are for your entertainment to some extent, this one in particular is intended as pure entertainment. I have to say such things, because otherwise people may think I’m serious.
If you didn’t read the above italics and somehow missed the word “stupid” in the title, let this be yet another [...]

Boating Accident (and some links)

September 28th, 2008 — , Links, bargain hunter, boating accident, coin collection, halloween spirit, steak chili recipe from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

I was in a boating accident today (not boats colliding as much as my own lack of coordination). I feel good, just 18 stitches to the eyebrow. I haven’t seen it, but some people say it was bad. I know there was a lot of blood, but I feel the same as [...]

$700 Billion Bailouts - Is My Money Safe?

September 26th, 2008 — , WaMu, bailout, banking, federal deposit insurance corporation fdic, jpmorgan chase, washington mutual from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

It seems like everyday there’s new news with bailouts and banks. Today it was that JPMorgan Chase Bought WaMu for 1.9 Billion. Naturally consumers have a lot of questions and they should have them. I’m not an expert. In fact, I’ve been distanced from the news as I’ve been halfway around [...]

Links - Looks can be Deceiving Edition

September 22nd, 2008 — , Links, bill simmons, espn, gymnast, military cargo, national spelling bee, speller from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

I’m still away on my vacation. We’ve had a little lot of trouble trying to get on the free military cargo flights that we were told were “typically very, very easy, but nothing is guaranteed.” It seems like there’s some value to a guarantee.
While we were on vacation, we got a little sucked [...]

Can You Trust Online Banks?

September 18th, 2008 — , ING Direct, banking, fdic insurance, high yield savings, high yield savings account from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money

Jim writes about personal finance at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.
I recently had a chat with one of my friends about online banking, how she had just started checking her account online, using bill pay functions, and managing her transactions through a website. She’s a pretty savvy individual, a mechanical engineer by trade, but not especially [...]

Buying a car? 10 Ways to Get the Best Deal

September 17th, 2008 — , Frugal, buying a car, buying a used car, car salespeople,

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