Mike — P2P No Bank

Stock Market Holidays

October 10th, 2008 — , Investing, News, nyse holidays, stock market columbus day, stock market holidays from Mike @ richerbytheday

Contrary to popular belief, the stock market is not closed for Columbus Day. Here are the NYSE holidays for 2008-2009:
2008
Thanksgiving Day                      November 27
Christmas                                    December 25
2009
New Year’s Day                        January 1
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day    January 19
Presidents’ Day                          February 16
Good Friday                               April 10
Memorial Day                            May 25
Independence Day                    July 3 (observed)
Labor Day                                  September 7
Thanksgiving Day                     November [...]

Passion Saving Book Review

October 10th, 2008 — , Book Review, Giveaway, Passion Saving, Purcellville, Retirement, Review, Rob Bennett, The Freedom Store, book giveaway, books, early retirement, pay yourself first, saving, wealth from Mike @ richerbytheday

The latest book review here at Richer by the Day is Passion Saving by Rob Bennett.

Note to Readers: I was given a complimentary copy of the book by the author, but believe that my review was not influenced by the fact in any way.
Passion Saving is billed as an alternative to the way many of [...]

The $100K Experiment

October 6th, 2008 — , $100, $100K Experiment, $100K jobs, 000 video, Ads, TheLadders.com. The Ladders, career, jobs, salary from Mike @ richerbytheday

TheLadders.com, the job site for positions in the $100K per year range, ran an interesting experiment. They placed $100,000 in a glass box and left it out in public to see the response. Hidden cameras captured what unfolded.

Watch the $100K Experiment
The idea behind their experiment (and their commercials) is that $100K draws quite a crowd. [...]

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A Case for Interest Only Mortgages

October 3rd, 2008 — , Freaky Financial Fridays, Investing, conventional wisdom, extra money, interest only loans, interest only mortgages, meltdown, mortgage, mortgage interest rate, real estate from Mike @ richerbytheday

This post is part of my Freaky Financial Fridays series, where I argue a case from an opposing view, generally in contradiction to my own philosophy or conventional financial advice.
Interest only mortgages are often associated with the sub-prime meltdown and generally dismissed by responsible financial advisers. While interest only loans are often poor vehicles for [...]

Should Raising FDIC Insurance Limits Really Change Confidence?

October 1st, 2008 — , News, bailout, banking system, banks, consumer confidence, fdic insurance limits, saving, us senate vote from Mike @ richerbytheday

Following the House’s recent defeat of the bailout bill and heading into tonight’s US Senate vote, speculation has been building that FDIC insurance limits will be raised to $250,000 from $100,000. While I’m strongly in favor of such a measure, and it will certainly improve consumer confidence in the banking system, I have to ask [...]

A Random Walk Down Wall Street Book Review

September 30th, 2008 — , Book Review, Investing, Review, book giveaway, books, burton malkiel, efficient market theory, free book, fund managers, picking stocks, random walk down wall street, survivorship bias from Mike @ richerbytheday

The latest book review here at Richer by the Day is A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel.

In this book, the author systematically disproves virtually all methods of predicting future stock performance. He goes beyond discrediting both technical and fundamental analysis to include more exotic methods as well. He shows how consistently beating [...]

Woot Arbitrage: Making Money One Day, One Deal at a Time

September 24th, 2008 — , Lending Club, arbitrage, ebay listings, excess inventory, making money, making money online, unbelieveable price, woot from Mike @ richerbytheday

This week, a fellow blogger at the Lending Club blog asked whether shopping on Woot is financially responsible and gave advice on how to make sure that it is. To his commentary, I’d like to add how to make money using Woot, or what I affectionately call Woot Arbitrage.
For those of you who don’t know, [...]

Living with Only One Car

September 16th, 2008 — , career, saving, saving money on gas, second car, selling your car from Mike @ richerbytheday

My wife and I recently cut back to having only one car instead of the two we have traditionally owned. This isn’t the first time we’ve gotten by with just one car, but it is more difficult. The last time we lived downtown in a small city and could easily walk to shopping, restaurants, and [...]

Your Money or Your Life Book Review

August 25th, 2008 — , Book Review, Giveaway, Review, book giveaway, books, career, classic books, joe dominguez, personal finance books, vicki robin from Mike @ richerbytheday

The latest book review here at Richer by the Day is Your Money or Your Life by by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.

Your Money or Your Life is one of those classic personal finance books that everyone seems to have read. After finally getting around to reading it myself, I can [...]

Now is the Time to Sell Textbooks

August 13th, 2008 — , Comparison Shopping, bookbyte.com, books, college textbooks, fall semester, making money, selling books, textbooks.com, valorebooks.com from Mike @ richerbytheday

This is a great time of year to sell your old college textbooks compared to the end of a semester. At the end of a semester you have two things going against you. First, that’s when everyone else is selling their books. More competition means lower prices. Second, since books for [...]

Using the Right Bank for You

August 11th, 2008 — , Rant, banks, best customer service, credit unions, minimum balance requirements, mortgage, ridiculous fees, saving from Mike @ richerbytheday

We all have horror stories about how we were mistreated, overcharged, or otherwise screwed by a bank at some point in our lives. If we find this happening again and again, it’s quite possible that we’ve chosen the wrong bank. The choice of a bank is less about whether a bank is good [...]

Finding “Missing Money”

July 14th, 2008 — , News, Welath, estate, finding money, missing money, missingmoney.com, property, unclaimed, unclaimed funds, unclaimed money, wealth from Mike @ richerbytheday

Unless you know where to look, missing money may never be found. Knowing that there is even something to look for is often a challenge. Money typically goes missing when someone dies and their heirs are unaware of accounts held by the deceased. As a result, money, property, and other funds due [...]

Get a Better 6?

July 14th, 2008 — , Ads, Get a Better six, bedtime, career, career family, managing your time, restful sleep, sealy posturepedic from Mike @ richerbytheday

We have long heard the positive benefits of getting more rest, yet many of us still get much less than we need. Trying to capitalize on this “reality”, Sealy Posturepedic, the well known mattress company, has a new print and media campaign urging you to “Get a Better 6.” Watch The Better 6 [...]

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Platinum Gas Saver Amoung Products Debunked by EPA and Consumer Reports

July 9th, 2008 — , Consumer Protection, Platinum Gas Saver, Platinum GasSaver, Vortex Cyclone, fuel economy, fuel efficiency, gas mileage, gas saving products, mpg from Mike @ richerbytheday

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning consumers about a rise in products offering to boost fuel efficiency. It’s no surprise that so many products are being offered, considering the high price of gas. Those prices are blinding consumer’s better judgment and causing them to be tricked by claims such as those made [...]

Save Even More with Vonage

July 8th, 2008 — , Vonage, phone service, referral link, saving from Mike @ richerbytheday

I’ve already covered how Vonage can save you money, but now I’m saving even more by paying for my service once a year. By paying for 12 months upfront, I get an extra 20% off! That means I’m getting all the phone service I need for 12 bucks a month. How can [...]

What Company Will Still Exist in 50 Years?

July 3rd, 2008 — , GM Bankruptcy, Investing, Retirement, buy and hold, long term investments, new economy from Mike @ richerbytheday

Merrill Lynch’s recent report stating the possibility of a GM bankruptcy is another reason to ask the following question:
What company will still exist in 50 years? How about 25?
The trouble with buy and hold philosophies for long term investments is that there really aren’t any companies that will surely be around in 50 [...]

MyGallons.com and the Rising Gas Hype

July 1st, 2008 — , News, Review, gas prices, my gallons, mygallons.com, oil futures, saving from Mike @ richerbytheday

MyGallons.com is a new service that allows you to prepay for gasoline, “locking in today’s prices.” As more an more people come to the seemingly inevitable conclusion that gas prices can only continue to rise, it’s no surprise that a company came along to take advantage of this line of thinking. I seem [...]

Why Paying Cash for a New Car Costs More

July 1st, 2008 — , Investing, blue book value, car costs, car worth, lease vs buy, mileage allowance, new cars, opportunity cost, paying cash, saving from Mike @ richerbytheday

Being frugally minded and debt averse I’ve always been proud to say that I pay cash for my cars. One of the cars in our household was bought new and the other one was bought used. After calculating the costs of buying a previous car for an upcoming post on the Lending Club [...]

New GI Bill Offers Full Tuition for Active Service

June 30th, 2008 — , GI Bill, News, active duty, active service, career, education benefits, saving, secondary education from Mike @ richerbytheday

President Bush today signed into law an updated GI Bill that had broad bipartisan support. The new bill provides service members, who served in the military for at least three years, full tuition at any in-state public university along with a monthly housing stipend. The benefits (which are as high as $90,000) can also [...]

New GI Bill Offers Full Tuition for Active Service

June 30th, 2008 — , GI Bill, News, active duty, active service, career, education benefits, saving, secondary education from Mike @ richerbytheday

Beer Fridge Efficiency

June 30th, 2008 — , Ads, Review, beer fridge, better solution, electric bills, energy efficiency, energy star compliant, mini fridge, saving from Mike @ richerbytheday

Budweiser has been running an ad showing an old refrigerator being moved to the garage when the new one is purchased. It says that although it doesn’t have a water dispenser or an ice-maker, it has plenty of room for what’s really important, i.e. Cold Beer. While the ad is entertaining and does [...]

Uncover a Rotten Neighbor Before You Buy a Home

June 27th, 2008 — , Review, neighborhood, neighbors, real estate, rotten neighbor from Mike @ richerbytheday

Many real estate sites can give you a profile of a town, or even a neighborhood, but none tell you about your actual future neighbors. To fill that need comes the site Rotten Neighbor. There you can see negative (and positive) comments made about people in your neighborhood. More than just barking [...]

Buy the Most Expensive Home You Can Afford

June 27th, 2008 — , Freaky Financial Fridays, advantages of investing in real estate, positive cash flow, real estate from Mike @ richerbytheday

This post is part of my Freaky Financial Fridays series, where I argue a case from an opposing view, generally in contradiction to my own philosophy or conventional financial advice.
Why is it that we are afraid to maximize our single greatest investment, the home in which we live? There may be better investments out [...]

How Come That Idiot’s Rich and I’m Not? Review

June 25th, 2008 — , Book Review, How Come THAT Idiot's Rich and I'm Not, Review, Rich Idiot, book giveaway, books, robert shemin, success philosophy, wealth from Mike @ richerbytheday

The latest book review here at Richer by the Day is How Come That Idiot’s Rich and I’m Not? by Robert Shemin.

The author has always had trouble getting things right. He constantly made mistakes. As a result, he also got it wrong when trying to make the mistakes that hold people back from [...]

IRS Mileage Rate Increased for July-Dec 2008

June 24th, 2008 — , IRS mileage rate, News, business mileage, company car, gas prices, reimbursements, standard mileage rate, taxes from Mike @ richerbytheday

photo credit:
Citing higher gasoline prices, the IRS has increased the optional business standard mileage rate from 50.5 cents per mile to 58.5 cents per mile for July-December of 2008. Taxpayers can use the optional standard rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business. This is also [...]

Google Gas - Mapping the Lowest Prices Near You

June 23rd, 2008 — , Review, budget, cheap gas, gas buddy, google gas, google map, lowest prices, saving from Mike @ richerbytheday

Finding cheap gas in your area is becoming increasingly important to everyone’s budget. In the past I’ve spoken highly of Gas Buddy which does just that. To make the search even easier, there is now a website that merges Gas Buddy data with a Google Map of your area. The combination of [...]

Lending Club News

June 20th, 2008 — , Lending Club, Member Payment Dependent Notes, News, P2P Lending, consumer loan, member loans, quiet period, securities act of 1933, securities and exchange commission from Mike @ richerbytheday

Lending Club, which has been in a quiet period due to a pending SEC filing, issued the following press release today:

Lending Club Files Registration Statement with the SEC
SUNNYVALE, CA - June 20, 2008 - Lending Club announced today that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission under [...]

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The All or None Qualifier

June 19th, 2008 — , Investing, all or none, benefits, commissions, downsides, limit order from Mike @ richerbytheday

photo credit: muztiko
Going “All In” is best known in the poker world, but also shows up in investing in the form of the All or None qualifier.
All or None is an option when buying or selling a security much like choosing the type or duration of the order. What All or None means [...]

Amazon Mechanical Turk - Making a Few Bucks from Home

June 17th, 2008 — , HITs, Review, amazon mechanical turk, career, human intelligence tasks, make money from home, mturk from Mike @ richerbytheday

There are some computer based tasks that computers cannot do as well as humans. Instead of hiring people full time to perform such services, many companies turn to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website. There you can sign-up and get paid to perform simple tasks.
To get an idea of how profitable the site could be, [...]

Segway Scooters - Green and Gas Free, But Still Costly

June 16th, 2008 — , News, forms of transportation, gas guzzler, rising gas prices, saving, saving money on gas, segway scooters from Mike @ richerbytheday

Rising gas prices causes people to try many alternative forms of transportation. One that has been getting a lot of coverage in the news is the Segway scooter. Getting about 25 miles to a charge means they are a viable alternative in some circumstances. Having ridden one myself, I can also [...]

Cost of Living - Sometimes Bigger is Better

June 13th, 2008 — , best of both worlds, cost of living, frugal living, reaction, real estate, saving, small town usa from Mike @ richerbytheday

Few things have as much impact over your personal finances as where you live. For most Americans, housing is their largest expense. Moving to an affordable market can do for your personal finances what years of frugal living in an expensive area cannot.
In her article To Cut Costs, Move to Small Town USA, [...]

The Lottery as Entertainment and Education, not Investment

June 11th, 2008 — , career, entertainment, risk reward, saving, self reflection, waste of money, winning the lottery from Mike @ richerbytheday

photo credit: lisatozzi
Ask nearly any personal financial adviser about the risks and rewards of playing the Lotto and they’ll tell you the same thing: It’s a waste of money. What is often lost in that advice is that there’s more to the Lottery than the potential for riches.
In a given year, I probably [...]

Perfectly Legal Book Review

June 10th, 2008 — , Review, alternative minimum tax, book giveaway, books, david cay johnston, death tax, inflation, tax evasion, taxes, wealthiest americans from Mike @ richerbytheday

My latest book review is for Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign To Rig Our Tax System To Benefit The Super Rich - And Cheat Everybody Else.
When I first heard that Perfectly Legal was written by someone who works for the New York Times, I was hesitant to waste my time, fearing that the book would [...]

I Surrender

June 9th, 2008 — , Prosperous Land from Mike @ Prosperous Land Blog

I started a new job a while back. A very good move for me and my family, but horrible for my free time and my free brainpower. I tried to deny it, but the reality is that I’ve got nothing left. I could pretend otherwise, but that’s self-delusion. I sti…

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Motivation to Save - The Swear Jar

June 9th, 2008 — , Ads, Budweiser Swear Jar, Review, coin jar, homer simpson, reaction, saving from Mike @ richerbytheday

Most of the advertisements reviewed on Richer by the Day are directly related to personal finance. Budweiser’s Swear Jar ad inspires further discussion, though it doesn’t directly deal with personal finance. In the ad, office workers, who are required to place 25 cents in a jar each time they swear, beginning swearing a [...]

First Book Giveaway Recipient Chosen

June 9th, 2008 — , Dan Ariely, Giveaway, News, Perfectly Legal, Predictably Irrational, book giveaway, books, david cay johnston from Mike @ richerbytheday

The recipient of the first book giveaway has been chosen and notified by email. They will be receiving my copy of Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational. Anyone who is interested in purchasing a copy of the book can find it here on Amazon.
Tomorrow I’ll be posting a review of the book I’m currently reading, [...]

Are You Investing Now?

June 5th, 2008 — , Investing, best way to make money, dollar cost averaging, doomsday, investment strategies, stock tips, value cost averaging from Mike @ richerbytheday

There’s an old saying on Wall Street that when you start getting stock tips from cab drivers it’s time to sell. The theory goes that if the market is doing so well that everyday people are buying into it, it’s probably overvalued and likely to fall. The opposite is also true. Though [...]

Predictably Irrational

June 2nd, 2008 — , Dan Ariely, Giveaway, Giveaways, Predictably Irrational, Review, behavioral economics, book giveaway, books from Mike @ richerbytheday

Predictably Irrational made economics entertaining in much the same way as Freakonomics. The fact that I enjoyed both of these books probably indicates my appreciation of behavioral economics in general. In Predictably Irrational, author Dan Ariely presents counter-intuitive theories and backs them up with very interesting experiments. He seems to have one [...]

ATM Reverse Pins and Alternative Security Ideas

May 28th, 2008 — , 911, News, atm pins, hoax, identity theft, panic pin, reaction, reverse pin, security from Mike @ richerbytheday

I recently received a forward email that has been circling the net for quite some time. The premise of the email is that if you are ever forced to withdraw money from an ATM by a thief you could enter your PIN in reverse order to summon the police. While such an idea [...]

Free Books on Personal Finance, Investing, Business, and Economics

May 27th, 2008 — , Financial Education, Giveaway, Giveaways, book giveaway, books, business books, economics books, free, free books, personal finance from Mike @ richerbytheday

As regular readers of Richer by the Day know, I read a lot of personal finance, investing, business, and economics books. Along with my personal experiences, the books that I read have played a huge role in my financial education. I typically list the book I am currently reading in the sidebar [...]

Where Will That Rebate Check Go

May 24th, 2008 — , collections from Mike @ Prosperous Land Blog

With the IRS blasting an estimated $105 billion dollars toward the public, the great question is where that check will go. I’m skeptical that it’ll provide the economic stimulus that folks in government were expecting - I’ve always assumed that folks w…

Prosper.com April Marketplace Survey

May 22nd, 2008 — , Prosper market summary from Mike @ Prosperous Land Blog

Prosper’s April Marketplace survey was an interesting read. Mostly for the disclaimers at the bottom. Prosper’s definition of “Attractive Risk-Return Tradeoff” was insightful.

Attractive Risk-Return Tradeoff: For purposes of t…

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Live Search Cash Back - Saving Money with Microsoft

May 22nd, 2008 — , Cashback, Review, comparison shopping online, live search cash back, product search, saving, saving money from Mike @ richerbytheday

I’ve always been a big fan of Google, both as a search engine and as a company. They seem to be the best at just about everything they do. Their Froogle product search (now called Google Product Search) dominated when it was introduced, but Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback program may stiffen the competition. [...]

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