For those of you who may have missed the State of the Union Address, here is a quick two-minute summary of President Obama’s speech.
For the full speech, watch this video.
For those who would like to read his speech, here is the full transcript.
A personal finance and investing blog
For those of you who may have missed the State of the Union Address, here is a quick two-minute summary of President Obama’s speech.
For the full speech, watch this video.
For those who would like to read his speech, here is the full transcript.
The CBS TV show, The Big Bang Theory teaches financial responsibility and discipline.
In Season 2 Episode 14, Penny needs money to pay rent and Sheldon lends her money. Sheldon lives below his means and saves up for the rainy days. In contrast, Penny lives “hand to mouth,” or paycheck by paycheck. She sometimes overspends and is often behind in bills.
Penny could not make rent and tells the story to Sheldon. Sheldon generously and gladly offers Penny his “secret” stash of money. He spends only what he needs and saves the extra money.
The lesson that can be learned here is that if we practice financial responsibility, i.e. spending less than we earn and have the discipline to control our spending we can avoid financial disasters like not making rent such as Penny does.
Citi Dividend Credit Card offers 5% Cash Back on the following purchases from January 1, 2012 through March 31, 2012:
You must enroll your card in the 5% cash back program online or call 1-800-231-0891.
TD Ameritrade offers up to $600 cash when you make a qualifying deposit or transfer to a new or existing TD Ameritrade IRA account by December 31, 2011.
Roll over:
If you open and fund a new IRA with a deposit of $2,000 or more, you’ll receive 500 free Internet equity trades to use in the next 60 days. Plus, you’ll get up to $600 cash with your qualifying deposit.
For complete details and rules, please visit TD Ameritrade.
Start investing today! If you are opening a new Ameritrade account, please send an email to GrowingMoney@Gmail.com with the subject line “TD Ameritrade Referral” and include your name and email address in the email body. I will send a referral email to you.
Disclaimer: I do not work for TD Ameritrade and do not receive any compensation for this post.
MasterCard offers a free $20 gift card for spending $200 online with your registered MasterCard card, from November 15 through December 31, 2011.
Follow these simple steps to get this offer:
Gift Card quantities are limited to the first 80,000 eligible entrants & maximum 10,000 other gifts to next 10,000 eligible entrants. Restrictions apply.
Promotion open to US Residents only.
For complete rules and details, please visit Mastercard.
You want to have fun but you don’t want to spend a lot of money. Fun does not always require a bigger spending budget. Fortunately, for our New York friends, we have a list of 101 Things To Do For $10 or Less from Time Out New York. The activities include movies, museums, music, dances, parties, food tasting, parks, bowling and more. They are heavy on fun and light on your wallets.
Do you know of a fun and budget activity? Let us know in the comment section below.
TD Ameritrade offers up to $400 in gift cards when you make a qualifying deposit or transfer to a new or existing account by December 23, 2011.
Deposit or transfer:
Gift Card Retailers include:
There is a special promotion for new deposits or transfers of $1 million or more:
For complete details and rules, please visit TD Ameritrade.
Start investing today! If you are opening a new Ameritrade account, please send an email to GrowingMoney@Gmail.com with the subject line “TD Ameritrade Referral” and include your name and email address in the email body. I will send a referral email to you.
Disclaimer: I do not work for TD Ameritrade and do not receive any compensation for this post.
The US Mint website now states:
The United States Mint has eliminated the credit and debit card purchase of $1 Coins through its Direct Ship Program effective July 22, 2011.
The announcement has since ended the benefit of ordering the $1 coins, which allowed you to rack up credit card rewards (miles/points/cash back). They have remove the incentive for people to order these coins. I suspect that there will be a huge decline in the demand of the $1 coins after the elimination of the credit card purchase. Baltimore’s reserve bank is sitting on an increasing pile of dollar coins.
I made decent use of the credit card program while it lasted, although I was not aggressive as some people who have ordered hundreds of thousands of coins. I also did my share to help circulate the coins by promoting and spending them.
I recently purchased a new graphics card (SAPPHIRE 100338L Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5) and there was a $20 rebate. My rebate came back today in the form of an American Express Gift Card for $20, instead of a check. This seems to be the new choice of payment for rebates now. Some prepaid cards charges a monthly fee if there is a balance. To avoid fees, I would recommend cashing out the prepaid cards in a form that would be useful to you.