Weekend Personal Finance Review – Red Sox Scare Edition

It’s August 11th and the Red Sox lead over the Yankees that was once 14 games is down to 5. It seems like this happens more often than not. The difference this time is that the Red Sox are still playing great baseball – good enough to be the #1 team in the ESPN Power Poll. The Yankees have just been playing exception baseball all around. Here are some personal finance articles to keep that off your mind.

Money Smart Life is looking for a rewards card for his web-based business since he doesn’t use traditional business services. Might I suggest that he get the Chase Business Rebate card? I’ve used it for nearly two years now – before I even had a business. They kept on sending me offers (twice a week sometimes) and I finally caved, so I guess there’s no business necessary. With 3% back at restaurants, office supply stores, and home improvement stores, and gas it saves me a lot of money. I used it to charge our wedding rehearsal dinner last month and the cash back will pay for couple of Vonage bills. Imagine what you could save on a whole home renovation project. (Note that I’ll get a little money if you sign up through that link.)

While on the credit card front, it seems that Sun has $100,000 in cash from 0% credit card offers. That can add up to $5K a year if invested in at a high interest bank. It seems like a lot of work and I tried it once, but $400+ a month and no damage to your credit is tempting. Did I mention that the previously card, Chase Business Rebate, offers 6 months of 0% interest? Well I am now.

The Digerati Life writes about stock options and when to sell them. Between her article and the article she links to, they pretty much cover everything. I would add that a lot of people cash out enough options to pay off the exercising costs and taxes. If you have serious money in stock options and don’t know what to do, do yourself a favor and find yourself two things 1) a competent accountant and 2) a subscription to MyStockOptions.com. The tools and information that Bruce Brumberg has compiled is amazing.

Jeremy has an article about beer, or is it about how biofuels are raising beer prices? It’s about both. He makes a great point that with all the biofuel, we are really just shifting the problem. Is anyone else concerned that world hunger is still a serious problem and we are using food to fuel our cars.

4M tells us he’s happy when the market goes down. I feel the same way. I wouldn’t mind a down market for the next 20 years followed by a big spike just in time for me to sell. The reality of it all is that it doesn’t matter much to me where it is today, this month, or this year. It’s where it is when way in the future that I think about.

Might Bargain Hunter mentions a couple of dining rewards programs, OpenTable and Restaurant.com. I’ve used both and highly recommend them. I have saved some money at Restaurant.com and don’t eat out enough for OpenTable to give me rewards. However, getting 3% back on any restaurant with my Chase Business Rebate card is very easy. Come on, you had to see that coming from a mile away.

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity doesn’t trust companies that use “what-if” marketing. Jim has a good point that some companies like to use fear to sell their product. Be sure to get both sides of the story from these companies before you act.

Five Cent Nickel says that Money magazine has joined the online bank revolution. I think I missed something, because I remember Money Magazine introducing me to the ING Direct back in 2000.

Free Money Finance found a story that says 60 Million Americans pay no tax at all. That sounds like too many people for me as well.