Yeah, I know I said "ain't" but I live in the South so it is a requirement. Anyway, a while back I posted about a shopping site called Ebates.com. Since I signed up, I have earned over $31 for buying things I would normally buy anyway. Instead of going to the store, I save time and money by ordering online through Ebates. Target, for example, gives 4% back on your purchase amount. I needed a new pair of shoes to wear to work and purchased them online. I paid the price I was looking for and got a 10% rebate. When I signed up for Netflix again, I signed up thru Ebates.com and received $18. The rebates are paid every quarter via Paypal or by check. A Big Fat Check, with cash back rewards for all your purchases posted between July 1st, 2007 and September 30th, 2007 will be sent on November 15th, 2007. Purchases from October 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007 will be paid on February 15, 2008.

If you want to make some extra money, you can sign up here. You get an additional $5 after your first purchase and I also get $5 for referring you.

Assets:

• Rental Property - $137,000
• Primary Residence - $193,000
• Car - $29,500
• Retirement - $41,295.44
• Cash (checking, savings) - $41,954.71
• Brokerage - $3477.52

Total Assets: $453,758.37

Liabilities:

• Rental Property Mortgage - $150,664.80
• Primary Home Mortgage -$183,672.29 (1st and 2nd mortgage)
• Car Loan - $25,976.31
• Student Loan - $22,223.81
• Credit Cards - $11,061.08

Total Liabilities: $393,598.29

Net Worth: $60,160.08; increase of 6.13% since August

Comments:

September was another good month due to gains in the market and keeping my spending under control. I was able to come in under budget again this month by over $150. Next month, I plan to decrease expenses even more by not making unnecessary purchases and eating out less. I need to save money for an upcoming trip to the Grand Canyon next month.

Debt continues to decrease. Credit card debt is as follows: $3300 at 0%, $7647.23 at 2.9% for life and $113.85 in current months charges to be paid in full next month. I plan to knock out the remainder of my credit card debt in December and then start knocking out the car loan balance.

My monthly debt numbers have been updated on the blog sidebar. Based on my forecast through the end of December, without any major financial emergencies, I should have no problems getting below my goal of less than $56,000.

As I posted here, one of my personal finance goals is to setup automatic bi-weekly transfers to my Freedom Account and my Rental Property account. Today, while sitting on my deck enjoying the beautiful weather, I setup the automatic transfers. Instead of doing bi-weekly transfers, I setup a weekly transfer. For my freedom account, I setup a weekly transfer of $50 for a total of $200/month. For the rental property account, I setup a weekly transfer of $37.50 for a total of $150/month.

Here's what these 2 accounts cover:

Freedom Account:
- Unexpected expenses
- Auto insurance premiums (bi-annually)
- 50% of Umbrella policy premium (50% to be paid out of rental property acct)
- Vacation Fund
- An electronic device every now and again

I plan to add an additional $1000 to this account in December when I get my yearly bonus.

Rental Property Account:
- Unexpected emergencies (maintenance issues)
- Home Maintenance policy (yrly cost of $380)
- Service call fees - $55 per call with Home Maintenance policy
- Landlord Insurance policy premiums
- 50% of Umbrella policy premium

I plan to add an additional $500 to this account in December when I get my yearly bonus.

It feels SO GOOD to have money set aside for those unexpected emergencies.

I recently opened a Bank of America MyExpression checking and savings account due to the great money market rates (well, they were before the latest rate drops). In doing so, I slowly drained my ING "Electric Orange" account and my checking account with a local bank. I totally forgot about 2 electronic debits I scheduled months ago to come out of the local checking account. The bank paid one of the debits and refused the other. The bank charged a NSF fee for both of the debits.

I'm a little upset about the overdraft fees but I am aware that it was totally my error. I did not feel I should have to pay for the debit that was not paid. I contacted customer service and they agreed to waive the $35 fee for the debit that was not paid.

Tip: If you are changing banks or closing accounts. Make sure ALL transactions have cleared the account to avoid any fees.

HustlerMoney has posted a great resource for locating a personal finance blog. He has taken the time to rank them by visitors and has even given them a grade. The blogs with the highest traffic and number of RSS readers are ranked with a 4.0 GPA.
SingleGuyMoney was not placed on the list but I left a comment to be added.

Check out the list here.


P.S. Make sure your are experiencing the full SingleGuyMoney experience. When you read the RSS feed, be sure to visit the full webpage.

While reading the Fatwallet forums today, I came across this thread:

Hello,

I am looking to purchase a parking spot in Chicago for about $10k. (Yes, parking in Chicago runs $10k+ depending on the location) I could probably pay this off in a year, so I'm looking for short term financing. I was thinking along the lines of a HELOC or possibly even a 0% credit card.

What are your thoughts on pros and cons of each? I am leaning towards finding a 0% credit card, and if I can't pay it off in a year, then I can take out a HELOC to finance it at a (hopefully) low rate.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Help.

$10k for a parking spot?? I have never heard of having to pay "extra" for a parking spot. I know when I worked in downtown Atlanta briefly, I had to pay a weekly fee to use the parking deck.
I guess this may be a good deal to the poster but I would have to take a long hard look at where I lived and determine if the additional $10k was worth it.

I will only charge him $5k and he can have my garage!

I've cleaned up the site a little and I hope you like it. I've also added a "contact me" section to make it easier to send me an email. If you like what you read here, please be sure to signup for the site feed. You can signup via email or your favorite RSS reader.

Also, please be sure to visit the site sponsors on the lower right side of the page.

I have 2 coworkers that presently have their homes for sale. I will call them Sally and Mary. Both Sally and Mary's homes have been on the market for over 6 months. Mary has had absolutely no interest while Sally has had several offers. Just recently, Sally finally went under contract. The buyers were preapproved and were making a large downpayment. Since Sally thought her home was sold, she and her husband put a contract on another larger home in great neighborhood and good school district. Everything was going well until the home inspection. There were a few small things that needed to be done before closing. Sally advised the buyers they would not be able to get the list completed in the 2 weeks prior to closing. What did the sellers do? They walked away! With so many homes on the market, why wait for them when they could move on to the next house?

Sally told me they had lowered the home price from the original asking price of $209,950 down to $185,000. They only paid $150,000 for the home three years ago so they were still making money; just not as much as they wanted.

So today, Sally's home is still on the market at 11% less than it was 6 months ago. One the mandate with the realtor is up, she is taking the home off the market and wait a little while.

In the October issue of Money Magazine, one of the cover stories was 47 ways to get on track to a rich life in 35 minutes or less. Of the six plans they offered,the best one is "Building Lifetime Wealth" in 35 years.

1. Own stocks. Since 1925, the S&P 500 has gained 10.2% a year. In the short run, stocks are riskier than bonds and cash but you have 35 years.

2. Pay Less. The 1.5% annual fee you are paying on your mutual fund may seem small but over 35 years, this can take a big bite out of your account balance. If you have a $10,000 balance, the difference between a 1.5% fee and a .2% fee is over $50k over 35 years.

3. Start Young. The effect of compounding interest over 35 years is unbelievable.

4. Diversify. Owning a mix of stock, bonds and other assets will help minimize your exposure to losses.

5. Buy a House. You can deduct the interest you pay and it is like writing a check to yourself rather than to the landlord. I'm not sure I necessarily agree with this one as some people do not want to be homeowners. If you have a balanced portfolio, you can still come out okay in the end.

6. Get and Stay Married. D-I-V-O-R-C-E can reduce your assets by half. I definitely do NOT agree with this one as not everyone WANTS or NEEDS to be married. There are alot of single people that can build wealth alone.

In order to increase revenue my from this site, I've decided to run a little promotion. As a Discover Card affiliate, I get $40 for every approved application on any card besides the student credit card. The student credit card pays $20 for every approved application. With that in mind, I want both of us to make a little money. Here are the details.

• Apply for any Discover card via the Discover Card link at the top of the page.
  
• If you are approved, forward the approval email to wannabefree30@gmail.com. You can delete any personal information.
• Once I receive the referral payout, I will split it 50/50 with you via Paypal.
• All the Discover cards feature: no annual fee, 0% on purchases and balance transfers for up to a year or 3.9% for the Motiva card. They also feature a low maximum $50 balance transfer fee.

Let's make some money. It is a win-win for everyone involved. I make money, you make money and the credit card company gains another customer...any questions, please feel free to email me.

I had a pretty rough day at work today so I thought I'd post a funny joke.

We were so poor, my daddy unplugged the clocks when we went to bed.
- Chris Rock

I get alot of spam email telling me how much money I can get if I just give them my account information. Most of the time I do not read them and immediately report them as spam. Today, I received an email from my "bank" telling me that I need to update my account information to protect my account and reduce fraud....yeah right. Here are a couple of things that made this one so funny:

• It came from security@bankofamerica.co.uk. I have never had an account outside the U.S. so why would my email come from the United Kingdom??
• There are a few misspellings in the email. Come on, if you are going to try and take my money, at least have the common courtesy to use spellcheck!
• Check out the link that I am supposed to click.

I forwarded the email to spam@uce.gov and reportphishing@antiphishing.org per the REAL bank.

Dear valued Bank of America member:


It has come to our attention that your Bank of America account informations needs to be updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service.

However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension.
Please update your records on or before September 20, 2007.
you are requested to update your account informations at the following link.
https://www.bankofamerica.com/login_update_done=1115487 <http://shop.hollylisle.com//sc_images/iuser_downloads/new/bankofamerica/updateinfo/www.bankofamerica.com/online_bofa_banking/e-online-banking/>
*Important*
We have asked few additional information which is going to be the part of secure login process. These additional information will be asked during your future login security so, please provide all these info completely and correctly otherwise due to security reasons we may have to close your account temporarily.

The one I am speaking of will not protect me from the rain but it will protect me from a major financial storm. I had been meaning to look into purchasing an Umbrella policy for a long time. An Umbrella policy protects you above and beyond your homeowners and auto insurance policies if your are sued.

For example, you are involved in a major auto accident and seriously injury or kill someone. You get sued and the case goes to court. The judgement is for $800,000. You only have $300,000 liability coverage on your auto policy. Where does the other $500,000 come from? Guess what, anything you own could be taken away to settle the debt.

I thought I did not need an Umbrella policy because I did not have significant assets and I thought the policy would be really expensive. I did a little research online and learned that I should have the extra coverage; especially since I own a rental property. I called my insurance agent and he provided me a quick quote based on my existing policy relationships. The extra coverage would only cost about $200 a year. I did not need to think too long to make my decision. $200 for an extra One Million in coverage? I'll take it....

It's the middle of the month and most of the bills are paid. Here is where I stand as of today.

Assets: End of August $451,252.79, Current $450,589.65. Down a little but no big deal as I have an additional paycheck coming, an additional 401k contribution and some other misc income.

Liabilities: End of August $394,569.50, Current $393,959.44. Down from last month but this is a good thing. It should drop an additional $500-$750 due to some pending debt payments.

Credit: Equifax 658, TransUnion 706, Experian 696. Not sure why there is such a large discrepancy between the Equifax and TransUnion. I reviewed all three reports and the balances are inline. Not really worried about my credit score right now as I do not need to finance anything right now. My next home purchase is not scheduled for at least 2 years so I have plenty of time to increase my scores.

Other: Completed account transition from ING to Bank of America due to the great interest rates on their money market accounts. You can read that story here. I first decided to leave my Freedom Savings account and Rental Property account at ING but moved them to my E-Trade savings account due to a higher interest rate and this is where I have my brokerage account.

I made an estimated tax payment of $750. This will not affect my net worth because I had already planned for this expense and saved the money in my Freedom Account.

I was reading the Fatwallet forums and someone asked a very interesting question. The poster was single and wanted to know what would happen to his money when he died if he had not provided the login info to his next of kin and there was no beneficiary.

I have never really bothered to put much thought into this because I do not have a spouse or children but that question now has me thinking. Where would my money go? Would the state take it? Would it just sit in the bank? I would much rather have it go to my family than get taken away by some unknown authority.

I know that for my 401k account, my mother and sister are the beneficiaries. But what about accounts like ING where they do not ask for this information?

I do not have a will because I don't have significant assets and I don't have any dependents. Should I have a will?

I know when you read the title you may think, "what in the hell is he talking about?" The reason I ask is that from my opinion, changing your behavior is one of the most important things you need to get out of debt. Yes, you also need money and to spend less than you earn. I did not create this blog to be a "how to" site or to give financial advice, I created it to share my journey with getting out of debt. With that being said, one of the biggest tools for me in reducing my debt is changing my behavior. I have tried to get out of debt many times in the past only to end up in a worse situation than when I started. I noticed my debt ONLY started to decrease significantly when I decided to change my behavior. What do I mean by this? I changed the way I thought about money. I looked back on my failures with getting out of debt in the past and figured out where I went wrong. It all went back to the same old thing; I never changed my behavior.

One problem I had was that I continued to use my credit cards to buy things I didn't need because I promised myself I would pay it off. The next week, I would purchase something else and say the same thing. In about 6 months, I am looking at my credit card statement thinking how I am going to pay it all off. I always said that when I got my next raise or my next bonus, I would use that to pay off the credit card. When I got my bonus or raise, I would pay SOMETHING towards the card but I would never pay it off. I paid off all my credit cards a few years ago by taking out a 125% loan on my house. Not shortly after that, I was back where I was before I refinanced. You can read that story here. The next problem I had was a lack of patience. If I wanted something, I did not stop to plan the purchase. I took out the credit card and boom, it was mine. I never took the time to sleep on it and make the right decision.

About a year ago, I decided enough was enough. I realized that I know HOW to get out of debt but I was adding about as much as I was paying off. I've since stopped using my credit cards like free money. Sure, I still charge things on my credit cards but the balance is paid in full the following month. I do not charge more on the card than I can pay in full the next month. I have an account set aside as a freedom account. If I want something, I have to save up and pay for it in CASH!

I apologize for rambling on so long but this has been on my mind for a couple of days now and I wanted to share. Maybe this post can help someone who is in the same situation.

I can't believe it has been 6 years since that horrible day. I remember the day like it was yesterday. That day really helped me to focus on what is really important in life. My prayers go out to all those who were affected by this tragedy. Take a moment out of your busy day to reflect and think about what is important to you.

I am usually pretty good at making a goal and sticking to it. Lately, I have set goals on where I want to be financially within the next 5 years. The problem is that they were all in my head and not down on paper in black and white. With that in mind, this weekend I sat down and put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and put them in writing. Here is what I wish to accomplish in the next 5 years. I am holding my readers personally responsible for making sure that I stick to these goals. I will periodically post an update on the status of my goals. If you see me slipping, don't be afraid to yell at me or slap me around a little. In order for me to get rid of the "debt monster", I have to stick to a solid plan.

For the next 0-12 months, I want to:

• Payoff my 0% credit card balance before the promo rate expires. The current balance is $3500.00
• Payoff the 2.9% for life credit card balance. Current balance $7847.23
• Increase my Freedom Savings account to $2000. Current balance is $1249.00
• Increase my Rental Property savings account to $1000. Current balance is $463.00
• Setup automatic transfers to the 2 above accounts bi-weekly instead of when I think about it.
• End 2007 with at least $64,000 net worth.

In 1-2 years, I want to:

• Start contributing extra payments to hammer down car loan
• Make extra payments toward Primary mortgage in order to have at least 20% equity.
• Make extra payments on rental property mortgage to get right side up.
• Increase all 3 credit bureau scores over 720.
• Net Worth of at least $85,000

In 2-5 years, I want to:

• Finish car payoff, preferably in the 2nd and 3rd yr and no longer.
• Over $100,000 net worth
• Start making extra payments to retire student loan debt.
• Savings of at least $50,000 in liquid cash
• Purchase a new home or investment property

There you have it; let's see how it goes from here.

For those of us that need to pay estimated tax payments, the next installment is coming due this week. The due date is September 15th but since that falls on a Saturday, the due date is the next business day of Monday September 17th. I went ahead and scheduled my payment online using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System or EFTPS Online. I've scheduled a $750 payment (from my checking account) for this quarter and will pay $750 for the next quarter on January 15, 2008. I have been getting several inserts in my credit card bill telling me I can use my credit card to pay my estimated taxes for a small fee...no thanks, I'll use my checking account for free.

Are you also making a estimated tax payment? If so, SingleGuyMoney wants to know how much you are paying. Sorry, people always tell me I am too nosey.

I recently opened a MyAccess checking account at Bank of America to get a $100 bonus. I had planned to keep the account for a little while and then close it. I was browsing the Bank of America site and saw they have new account packages called MyExpression Banking. The theme of these accounts are that they represent various charitable causes. One of the big things that caught my eye was the rates for the Money Market account. I don't know if these are teaser rates or not. But for Georgia, the rates are as follows:

• Less than $2500 3.00% APY
  
• $2500-$9999 5.35% APY
  
• $10000-$24999 5.45% APY


• $25000-$49999 5.45% APY


• $50000-$99999 5.71% APY


• $100000- 5.71% APY

There is a $1000 minimum to open the account. If you already have a Bank of America checking or savings account, there is no hard pull. I'm seriously considering moving my money from ING to Bank of America. I love having my money local if I can get a great rate.

If you open an Advantage checking account, you also get the following:

• Free banking services and preferred rates
• Additional checking and savings accounts for no monthly maintenance fee
• Free Online Banking service with free Bill Pay
• Receive almost every banking service you need for free or at preferred rates
• A second checking account with no monthly maintenance fee
• Up to four savings accounts with no monthly maintenance fees
• Free Online Banking service with free Bill Pay
• Free Bank of America Check Card with Total Security Protection® and Photo Security®
• Free Advantage checks and checkbook cover
• Trade stocks online for as low as $0 with Banc of America Investment Services, Inc.®
• No ATM Fee on deposits and withdrawals at Bank of America ATMs
• No rental fee on standard size safe deposit box

I was riding in the car the other day and for once, I was listening to the radio. Usually when I am in the car, I listen to my Ipod. That way, I know I will like the songs that are playing and I do not have to listen to the annoying radio DJ's and all the commercials for products I don't want or need. On the station I was listening to, the male and female DJ were promoting an upcoming event and they were giving away free tickets. The female DJ said she should try and win the tickets because she did not have the money to go to the event because her mortgage payment was coming up. The male DJ asked her when she usually paid her mortgage. She replied she paid it before it was late; usually on the 14th so she would not have to pay a late fee. The male DJ responded by telling her that her credit must be bad. The female DJ asked why to which he responded, "You know they report your loan past due after 10 days." The female DJ was dumbfounded and could not believe she had been "late" all those times. He then asked her if she checked her credit score recently and she said no because "checking your own credit hurts your score." I know the people in the car next to me probably thought I was crazy because my mouth just dropped as I could not believe what I had heard.

WHAT are these people smoking? First of all, late payments are not reported to the credit bureau until you are more than 30 days late. I have had a mortgage for the last 5 years and I have always waited to pay my mortgage until around the 10th or 11th of the month. It was NEVER considered late and I have never had a late payment report to any of the 3 credit bureaus. Correct me if I am wrong but has any of you who paid before the 15th have a late payment show up on your credit report?

Secondly, checking your own score DOES NOT affect your credit score. Again, I check my credit score all the time and my credit score does decrease unless I accumulate additional debt or apply for additional debt.

It scares me to think how many people heard that and freaked out about late payments on your mortgage after 10 days and you are hurting your credit score by checking your credit report.
I think just as the news reporters need to verify the information they are giving is correct, so should radio DJs.

Following CleverDude's post yesterday, I also made the decision to cancel my Blockbuster Online subscription. I noticed my movies took longer to arrive than they did with Netflix and with the recent cost increase, I figured I should go back to where I was happy. Another reason influencing my decision was the ability to watch movies online with Netflix. I switched to the 1 movie at a time unlimited plan that provides 5 hours of online viewing. This plan will cost $8.99 a month vs. the $16.99 I was paying with Blockbuster. Another perk was getting $18 from Ebates.com for signing up which equals about 2 months free and with the 2 week free trial, I get about 2.5 months free.

Ok, problem solved. Everything is back like it should be with my blog. If I have missed a link to your blog or you would like a link exchange, let me know by leaving a comment. Thanks for reading SingleGuyMoney!!!

Hello Everyone -

I accidentally screwed up the html code for my blog and I'm working on it now. My blog looks kinda crazy right now. I should have it fixed and back to normal very soon.

I was going out to lunch the other day with a co-worker and she needed to get some cash. I know what bank she uses and proceeded to go there. She advised that she needed to go to another bank. I inquired as to why she was going to this bank as she always goes to Bank of America. Turns out, she had been spending too much money and she and her husband had been arguing about money. The reason we were going to a different bank? This is where she keeps her secret accounts. Her husband knows nothing about this account and this is the account she uses when she needs to get cash that she doesn't want him to know about.

This started me to thinking...do most married couples do this? Do you hide money from your spouse? I guess I find this totally crazy being a single person so maybe you guys can shed some light on the subject.

Update: Lynnae over at BeingFrugal.net posted a great follow-up to this topic. Head over and check it out.

Well she does not really put dollar bills in the trash. She throws away money at the grocery store. She has a real bad habit of going to the grocery store and purchasing things she thinks she will need instead of making a list before going to the store. She will think she needs onions and while she is at the grocery store, she will just pick some up. In the meantime, she already has plenty of onions rotting at home from the last time she went to the store and thought she needed onions. I've told her over and over again, she is just throwing money away by buying things she already had. She finally let me go through her pantry and she does not need to by another can good. She has enough can goods to feed a small army. We finally made a list of things she does NOT need to buy because she has plenty of it already. My mom is pretty nonchalant about spending which really worries me. She is 51 years old and does not have alot saved for retirement.

I've offered her a couple of suggestions to help her save money:

• Take inventory. Go through the cabinets and fridge and see what items she needs.
• Make a list. Write down exactly what she needs and stick to the list.
• Check for coupons. She has a subscription to the Sunday paper. She should check and see what coupons are available for items she was planning to purchase anyway.

Using my tips above, she should be able cut her grocery spending in half.

CNN Money has a pretty simple calculator on their site that allows you to input your age and yearly income and it will spit out where you should rank based on your age and income. Based on my age, my Networth is over 20 times the median. For my income, I am about half the median. It's always interesting to do this but I don't plan my finances around it.

See where you rank based on your age and income.

I use a portable flash drive to store all my documents so it is quick and easy to access my documents from another location. I was using a 1GB drive and was looking to upgrade as this one was filling up pretty quickly. Checking the Sunday paper today, I found that Office Depot is having a great sale. One of the items I found is a 4GB Sandisk Cruzer drive on sale for $29.99 vs. the regular price of $79.99. I figure saving $50 on something I was looking to purchase anyway is a great deal. They had alot of other items on sale but I did not need them. No use buying items

don't need just because they are on sell. The sale is good thru 9/18. Check

it out and find your own good deal.

Just a quick reminder. If you enjoy this site and would like to keep track of my debt reduction progress, don't forget to sign up for RSS feeds. That way, you'll be notified everytime there is a new exciting post here at SingleGuyMoney. If RSS feeds are not your thing, you can sign up for email updates. Both options are on the right side of the page under the "About Me" section and above the "Networth" chart. And as always, thanks for visiting.

Assets

• Rental Property - $137,000
• Primary Residence - $193,000
• Car - $29,500
• Retirement - $38,949.52
• Cash (checking, savings) - $41,886.45
• Brokerage - $3,416.92

Total Assets: $451,252.79

Liabilities

• Rental Property Mortgage - $150,889.43
• Primary Home Mtg - $183,873.06 (1st and 2nd mortgage)
• Car Loan - $26,301.87
• Student Loan - $22,223.61
• Credit Cards - $11,281.33

Total Liabilities: $394,569.50

Net Worth: $56,683.29, inc from July: 8.52%; YTD increase: 76.40%

August was a pretty good month and the best month since March. Alot of my increase was due to 3 paychecks this month and a little bit of an increase in my investments.

On the debt front, as previously posted, I was able to get below the $60k threshold. Due to the extra paycheck this month, I made double debt payments for this month.

My credit card debt is as follows: $7781.33 @ 2.99% until balance is paid, $3500 @ 0%. I did not use my credit card this month so there are no current charges from the current month.