It’s Martin Luther King day. For some that means you get the day off. Others have to work a normal day. Either way, it’s worth reading up on some Martain Luther King Jr. history. When you are done with that catch up on some personal finance links.
- Jeremy doesn’t like the idea of a 401k Debit Card. I’ll have to ask him about how he feels about social security debit card.
- The Sun’s Financial Diary found that Zecco has a horrible dividend reinvestment process.
- While we are airing our grievances, Money, Matter, and More Musings writes about a passport photo ripoff.
- The Digerati Life asks if you are depressed today? It’s the biggest depressing day of the year (though I think the Martin Luther King factor makes it uplifting). It’s really rainy here near San Francisco. If you are depressed she gives you some tips. You might also want to read an article I wrote, depression and me for more tips.
- Money Smart Life writes about a home office deduction for Ebay taxes. I will have to investigate this deduction since I work at home now almost exclusively now. As usual, I will visit my tax advisor before I do anything.
- No Credit Needed is doing a little baby shopping. I don’t think I said it before, but I wish to offer him my congratulations.
- Free Money Finance has some ways to make money as a writer. He seems to make the distinction between blogging and writing. I hadn’t really thought of them as separate things. Since I don’t software engineering anymore, I don’t typically say that I’m a blogger, but just a writer.
- Mighty Bargain Hunter wrote about discipline and personal finance. I go with a “simply adopting a broad frugal approach”, rather than a disciplined one. The problem is that I have to really think about a purchase that than just consult my hard and fast budget. The good thing is that it’s very little physcial work to adopt a broad frugal approach – and I’m Lazy.
- Jonathan Ryan wrote an article about budgeting. He doesn’t write very often, but his site is a good one if you want to learn to be handy around the home. It will save you some money.
- I helped Peter from Money Management and You set up his blog this week. He’s already got a couple of good articles on passive income.
- If you own a blog and are interested in such things, I wrote an article for the Prosper Blog about how I make money with Prosper.com. I want to note that I was writing about Prosper long before there was a referral program. In fact I used to write about them a lot more then than I do now.
A 401k debit card?!!! That is the WORST IDEA I have heard in at least the last year. What an incredibly ridiculous mess that will allow someone to make!
I really appreciate the mention, thanks
Actually, I have no problem with the Social Security debit card. The main reason is that most people already either receive a check or get direct deposit, and this is targeted specifically towards those who don’t have a bank account. Of course, all this card is doing is giving them an account with a card that has access to it, but I think this card will actually only service a relative small number of those collecting.
It could lead to increased spending though, which is an obvious drawback, but it is otherwise no different than someone who has a debit card that is tied to an account that receives their SS deposit either manually or via DD.
Plus if it can save $44 million a year in administration costs, all the better. The only problem I see with it are the fees that Comerica will rake in from this, although if someone REALLY wanted to avoid fees, they could just open a checking account at a local bank and deposit their SS there. So if they are too lazy or can’t otherwise accomplish that, then the fees are probably appropriate.
Hi Lazy man,
I found your blog the other day and was very impressed. I have recently decided to start a blog as preliminary research for a financial advice website, can you give me some tips for promoting my blog?
Best regards,
JC Rockafella
http://jcrockafella.blogspot.com/