While many are now talking about investing in gold and other precious metals, others seem to be investing in other metals. As said my one of my readers dubbed Amazing Larry, “I too have been buying alot of metal recently, but mostly just copper-jacketed lead“. Yes, Virginia, Larry is talking about ammunition! As people are [...]
I just came across these charts, which were referenced in an opinion piece in Canada’s Financial Post. The piece poses the question if the political shenanigans we are seeing here in the US will be the end of our country, or at least its status as a financial powerhouse. But the most disturbing part is [...]
I posted last week about going on Twitter. While I’m new to this whole Twitter thing, I really like being able to post quick summaries of my posts and post other tidbits that may not justify their own blog posting themselves. You can follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/CheapEncounters. My most recent “tweets” can also [...]
Imagine owing $360 on a credit card with an $8,600 limit, only to have the limit cut to $300 and then be assessed a $35 over-the-limit fee. That’s what happened to Paul Pensabene of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., according to this article from SmartMoney.com. Thankfully for Paul he was able to get the fee waived and [...]
I am in a lot of ways Obsessive-Compulsive, and one area where it was really bad was in saving receipts. The intention was good: to be able to track our spending in Quicken or Money. However, this goal proved elusive as I never was able to commit to actually tracking everything in Money or Quicken [...]
I posted a couple of weeks ago about my fear of the devaluation of points in Citi’s Thank You rewards program, and that I had cashed out most of my points for the mortgage payment reward. At least as of now, the mortgage payment reward is $0.007987 per point, or 93,900 points for a $750 reward. [...]
Readers of this blog know I’ve been in a relatively pessimistic mood recently, and would not be surprised to find out my current read is Game Over: How You Can Prosper in a Shattered Economy by Stephen Leeb, PhD. The book outlines the theory that the world will soon face an economic crisis that could lead to [...]
If you made responsible financial decisions over the last several years and were hoping there may be something in Obama’s mortgage bailout for you, keeping hoping. As far as I can see there is nothing for my family in the bailout (even after my wife’s layoff earlier this week), and you’ll likely come to the [...]
I got myself into a mini-debate over on SlickDeals a while back about people who write checks at retail stores. I’m not a terribly patient person anyway, so retail check writers annoy me to no end. It takes much longer to write out a check than it does to swipe a card or even count out [...]
If you are observant, you may have noticed the new section on the right sidebar for Twitter updates. In case you just can’t get enough of the randomness of this blog, you can now get even more in small bites of 140 characters or less. Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/CheapEncounters.