Loading...

An Emergency Fund in Action: Our $500 Weekend

An Emergency Fund in Action: Our $500 Weekend
Direct your browser to just about any personal finance blog, and you’ll be able to find at least one post about emergency funds: why you should have one, how to build it, when you should start, and exactly how much (or how little) you should sock away. What I don’t see a lot of is emergency funds being used for, you know, emergencies. (A planned car purchase is not an emergency.) Maybe they don’t have many emergencies, or perhaps personal finance bloggers aren’t willing to admit it when their warranties expire. Whatever. Here’s some real life for you.Since the day we bought this house, the to-do list has included replacement of the basement door. It’s warped and in sad shape. The jam is a little rotten, and it lets in water during really heavy rain. Still, it opens and closes and behaves in a sufficiently door-like manner that we weren’t all THAT worried about it, until today. Today, that basement door went from a “to-do” to a “to-do now“. You see, Friday night, Boo (the resident cat and benevolent overlord) caught a mouse.For Boo, this isn’t a particularly unusual act. She’s a retired member of a hardware store extermination team, and it probably felt pretty good to shake the dust off the old stalk-n-pounce skills. She is a master mouser. For us, this isn’t so good. Nobody wants mice in their house. It’s just… oooky. *shivers*Dani did some research, and we poked around our basement, and decided that the first important step was to either fix or replace the back door to eliminate the wide gap at the bottom (and the ham-handed repairs of the previous owner). If you have mice, it seems, the first step to eliminating them is to cut off their points of entry. If you have any sort of holes in your house, it’s recommended that you stuff them with steel wool — apparently, mice don’t like the texture, so they won’t chew through it. Mice can enter the house through any hole larger than a US dime — like the yawning gap under our basement door.

Protect yourself against identity theft09Apr08

Protect yourself against identity theft09Apr08
Identity theft is when someone uses, without permission, your personal information in order to commit any frauds or crimes. Identity theft is a felony that is becoming more and more common. That is because some of us are not very careful with personal information, making the job easier for those trying to steel our identity. We should always be careful with information like Social Security number, credit card number, birth date, employment information, driver’s license number, etc., because if they enter into the wrong hands the consequences can be very serious. People that have experienced identity theft spend months trying to repair what others have damaged, and in the meantime they cannot get a loan or lose a job opportunity or, sometimes, they can get arrested for something they didn’t do.

5/14/08

Credit Card Skins - Credit Cards As A Fashion Statement


I have always viewed credit cards as a financial tool. So it came as a bit of surprise when I realized that for many people credit cards are just as much a fashion statement as they are a financial tool. This truly hit home this weekend.



I was talking with a lady who has 17 different credit cards. When I asked why she had so many different credit cards, she replied that she “got bored with the design” on them and so she needed to get new cards to get new designs.



Her words left me speechless, but they really shouldn’t have. All you have to do is look at how credit cards are marketed to realize that there are a huge number of people who choose their credit card for the fashion statement it makes and not the financial advantages (or disadvantages) it may have.



The more I thought about it, I realized that credit cards as a fashion statement even occurs in my own household. My wife applied for her credit card for the sole reason of obtaining a credit card with the animation character she wanted on it. The interest rate made littel difference to her. She wanted a card that looked a certain way and that is the one she applied for and received.



Since we pay off our credit cards in full each month, my wife getting her card as a fashion statement has little negative effect on us. For someone that has 17 different credit cards, however, it could make a huge imapact, especially if the interest rates vary by quite a bit and the person doesn’t pay off their cards in full each month.



While I certainly don’t believe that people should pick their credit cards for the fashion statement it makes, I also know that for some like my wife, no reasoning is going to convince them otherwise. That being said, there may be a better way to pimp your credit card than to apply for a new one each time you’re ready for a new design.



There is a company that will actually let you buy credit card skins which you can place on your credit card to give it a new look whenever you want. While my wife described their offering as “unimaginative and boring” when I showed her the site, I’m sure that you will see more companies offering credit card skins with a wider variety of designs in the future. If your credit card has to make a fashion statement, these seem like a much better alternative than to get a new credit card every time you get bored with the design.
Posted by elle_famous at 23:47

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)