Thanks to the daily dose of mymoneyblog, I have found the new hot new financial treasure on the market. For those of you that are ultra conservative and avoid equity market at all cost, the good news is that E-Loan offers online saving rate of 5.5% APY with a minimum opening amount of $5000 (after that you need to maintain a minimum of $500 or you account will be closed!). For the CD affectionados, the 6 month CD rate is 5.6% APY, 1 year rate 5.7% APY and 18 months rate 5.75% APY!!
This totally knocks out the previous gems like Virtual Bank, ING Direct and Emigrant Direct! And ofcourse, E-Loan is FDIC insured. Too bad it does not offer referral rewards, if not you guys can join via me and we can share the fortune, muahahaha.....
Showing posts with label Financial stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Financial stuff. Show all posts
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Free Ipod Nano 2G!
Finally Ian the taukeh is sound asleep now. Taking a break from the baby, I was surfing the internet for good deals, as any cheapo Penang Lang would do, and came across this fantastic good deal. Yup it is a free Ipod Nano 2G if you have $10k to be put in some investment account for at least 9 months, while earning some gain or interest at the same time. Make sure you read all the fine prints before making the plunge!
Thanks to financial deals websites like Fatwalllet and Moneyblog, this is the second time I see a good deal to get free Ipod. I got my free Ipod nano the first time I saw the opportunity, from NY Jets Credit Card. But that was only 1G. Grr....too bad I already opened the Ameritrade account when they have free Palm Treo 650 to give away...a second Ipod with 2G will be good!
p/s: happy birthday dearest sis wei wei!
Thanks to financial deals websites like Fatwalllet and Moneyblog, this is the second time I see a good deal to get free Ipod. I got my free Ipod nano the first time I saw the opportunity, from NY Jets Credit Card. But that was only 1G. Grr....too bad I already opened the Ameritrade account when they have free Palm Treo 650 to give away...a second Ipod with 2G will be good!
p/s: happy birthday dearest sis wei wei!
Thursday, August 24, 2006
An Overview of Diaper Cost Analysis
Countdown to product launch date: 4 days.
To date Pearl is still pretty active (ok ok, and also pretty and attractive, yes dear I have already written that down…), still able to do some light work out, and still cooks everyday. In other words, there is no imminent sign that the little rascal is coming out anytime soon. Though little kow-kia is safe and snug in his mom’s tummy, the mommy can’t wait for him to get out. It pains my heart every time I see her suffer from various symptoms of pregnancy: kicking in the liver, gaseous stomach, indigestion, Braxton-Hicks contractions (can’t tell for sure, since this is her first time!), back ache, occasional insomnia etcetera etcetera. This is worse than the last time she fell ill…
Today will be her last day to drive to work, and starting tomorrow I will be her dedicated chauffer, or as they say, Tchaikovsky, in Cantonese. This is just in case if the baby decides to come out during work hours, I will be able to drive her to the hospital without the hassle of having to park another car at her company’s garage. Grab bag – check; baby seat – check; diapers –check. So we are ready to go. Anyway, in case Ian shows the early sign of a superstar and be fashionably late, we will have to go through the painful inducing process. The bright side is that we will have a Merdeka day baby! Rumors have it that he will receive life time supplies of diapers, milk powder etc from the government. I wonder if this will be reported on the newspaper. I should also make sure that Jeff Ooi gets that piece of news from our dedicated Sugarland agent.
By the way, my eyes squint every time I think of the diapers. I hope the rumor is true else diapers will be quite a big expense for such a tiny human. And on top of that to remember that I am the dedicated diapers changer, since I do not, unfortunately, produce milk. At least now we have a used Diaper Genie, which may help to reduce the odor a little, nonetheless comes with another expense – all those refills!
Anyway, back to what I intended to share with the parents or parents to be out there: the cost of diapers. According to the blind test conducted by one of our potential in-laws, there is no difference in quality and feel between the cheaper in-house brands such as Smiles (Sam’s) and the expensive branded diapers like Huggies Supreme. In the effort to continue his paradigm-shifting endeavor, CS & Pearl Marketing Institution has conducted an in-depth price survey of diapers on the market and concluded that the winner in terms of cost of diapers are, in no particular order, Target, Smiles (of Sam’s Club) and, surprise…surprise, Luvs! And our study also found that the myth of cheaper diapers from online 800diapers.com store is certainly not true, even if taken into account of the 0% tax and free shipping!
If you look at costs alone, the house brands of Target and Sam's win hands down. The cheapest diaper for new born is none other than the Target Brand from Target (so uncreative…). So now we know where all our Target gift card will go to :) A word of advise for baby showers - register at Target!!
The winner for size 1 and 2 are again both Target’s house brand, Target (yawn...). If your baby is between size 3 to 5, Sam's Smiles is the cheapest brand to consider. For larger baby of size 6, surprise surprise...Luvs is the winner!
A copy of the detailed market analysis can be DONWLOADED HERE.
We completed the study with a hypothetical calculation, comparing the costs of purchasing the most expensive diapers vs. the least expensive.
Assumptions:
- baby changes diapers 4 time more often than toddler
- you potty train your toddler by age of 2
- weighted average of diaper unit price is estimated based on linear usage relationship
The results show that all things equal, the cheapest diapers costs 56% less than the most expensive brands. So depending on the frequency of diaper usage, the potential saving could range from $500 to $1k.
So what’s the conclusion? Diaper money is NOTHING compared to other more costly expenses such as DAY CARE & EDUCATION!!
Let us all start using Huggies Supreme on those delicate little behinds!
To date Pearl is still pretty active (ok ok, and also pretty and attractive, yes dear I have already written that down…), still able to do some light work out, and still cooks everyday. In other words, there is no imminent sign that the little rascal is coming out anytime soon. Though little kow-kia is safe and snug in his mom’s tummy, the mommy can’t wait for him to get out. It pains my heart every time I see her suffer from various symptoms of pregnancy: kicking in the liver, gaseous stomach, indigestion, Braxton-Hicks contractions (can’t tell for sure, since this is her first time!), back ache, occasional insomnia etcetera etcetera. This is worse than the last time she fell ill…
Today will be her last day to drive to work, and starting tomorrow I will be her dedicated chauffer, or as they say, Tchaikovsky, in Cantonese. This is just in case if the baby decides to come out during work hours, I will be able to drive her to the hospital without the hassle of having to park another car at her company’s garage. Grab bag – check; baby seat – check; diapers –check. So we are ready to go. Anyway, in case Ian shows the early sign of a superstar and be fashionably late, we will have to go through the painful inducing process. The bright side is that we will have a Merdeka day baby! Rumors have it that he will receive life time supplies of diapers, milk powder etc from the government. I wonder if this will be reported on the newspaper. I should also make sure that Jeff Ooi gets that piece of news from our dedicated Sugarland agent.
By the way, my eyes squint every time I think of the diapers. I hope the rumor is true else diapers will be quite a big expense for such a tiny human. And on top of that to remember that I am the dedicated diapers changer, since I do not, unfortunately, produce milk. At least now we have a used Diaper Genie, which may help to reduce the odor a little, nonetheless comes with another expense – all those refills!
Anyway, back to what I intended to share with the parents or parents to be out there: the cost of diapers. According to the blind test conducted by one of our potential in-laws, there is no difference in quality and feel between the cheaper in-house brands such as Smiles (Sam’s) and the expensive branded diapers like Huggies Supreme. In the effort to continue his paradigm-shifting endeavor, CS & Pearl Marketing Institution has conducted an in-depth price survey of diapers on the market and concluded that the winner in terms of cost of diapers are, in no particular order, Target, Smiles (of Sam’s Club) and, surprise…surprise, Luvs! And our study also found that the myth of cheaper diapers from online 800diapers.com store is certainly not true, even if taken into account of the 0% tax and free shipping!
If you look at costs alone, the house brands of Target and Sam's win hands down. The cheapest diaper for new born is none other than the Target Brand from Target (so uncreative…). So now we know where all our Target gift card will go to :) A word of advise for baby showers - register at Target!!
The winner for size 1 and 2 are again both Target’s house brand, Target (yawn...). If your baby is between size 3 to 5, Sam's Smiles is the cheapest brand to consider. For larger baby of size 6, surprise surprise...Luvs is the winner!
A copy of the detailed market analysis can be DONWLOADED HERE.
We completed the study with a hypothetical calculation, comparing the costs of purchasing the most expensive diapers vs. the least expensive.
Assumptions:
- baby changes diapers 4 time more often than toddler
- you potty train your toddler by age of 2
- weighted average of diaper unit price is estimated based on linear usage relationship
The results show that all things equal, the cheapest diapers costs 56% less than the most expensive brands. So depending on the frequency of diaper usage, the potential saving could range from $500 to $1k.
So what’s the conclusion? Diaper money is NOTHING compared to other more costly expenses such as DAY CARE & EDUCATION!!
Let us all start using Huggies Supreme on those delicate little behinds!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
To VoIP or not to VoIP?
Here is our first attempt at sharing some cost saving tips, if the response is good, more will follow!
How much do you spend on your phone bills every year? For those of us that make frequent phone calls to Malaysia and Singapore, the additional fees of international phone cards really add up to a larger phone bill than we expected.
For us, we subscribe to the SBC landline for $21.53 after tax, and recently it has increased to $23.22 after SBC merged with AT&T. So that adds up to $278.64 after tax, per year. I think that is the older rate, which is much lower than the current new rate under AT&T. As for our international phone card, we switched to the Purple Card after our cost-savvy sister-in-law introduced it to us. To date, we found that it is perhaps the cheapest reliable phone card available for calls to Malaysia (2.5 cents/min for landline, 5 cents/min for cell). On average we use up about $20 worth of calls every month, so that adds up to $240 per year (tax free, since purchased online), with a grand total of $518.64 per year of phone bills!
Realizing how expensive the phone costs can be, we started looking for cheaper alternatives online. There are, of course, many cheaper options available. One of the most popular and free service is Skype and the like (VoIP phones). However, not all the services, especially the free ones, match our requirements. In search of a better, cheaper phone service, we are looking for:
The first three criteria left us with VoIP service providers such as Vonage, Viatalk and SunRocket. And since SunRocket’s Sunspots gives us FREE UNLIMITED calls to Malaysia and Singapore, this seems to be THE choice to go! With $299 per year (no taxes, hidden fees, yay!), we will be saving $219.64 a year!
However, given the good bargain, there are still some concerns that make us reconsider our choice:
So given the setbacks above, should we get a cheap local plan and continue using the Purple Card? A quick glance at the VoIP review page shows that the cheapest plan goes to Zingotel for $5.95, which includes free local and 100 min US and Canada. This totals to $191.40, giving us an even more substantial saving of $327.24 per year! However, the user review shows that it has probably the worst customer service…which we will definitely regret!
So, to VoIP or not to VoIP? That is the question.
What is your take on this?
How much do you spend on your phone bills every year? For those of us that make frequent phone calls to Malaysia and Singapore, the additional fees of international phone cards really add up to a larger phone bill than we expected.
For us, we subscribe to the SBC landline for $21.53 after tax, and recently it has increased to $23.22 after SBC merged with AT&T. So that adds up to $278.64 after tax, per year. I think that is the older rate, which is much lower than the current new rate under AT&T. As for our international phone card, we switched to the Purple Card after our cost-savvy sister-in-law introduced it to us. To date, we found that it is perhaps the cheapest reliable phone card available for calls to Malaysia (2.5 cents/min for landline, 5 cents/min for cell). On average we use up about $20 worth of calls every month, so that adds up to $240 per year (tax free, since purchased online), with a grand total of $518.64 per year of phone bills!
Realizing how expensive the phone costs can be, we started looking for cheaper alternatives online. There are, of course, many cheaper options available. One of the most popular and free service is Skype and the like (VoIP phones). However, not all the services, especially the free ones, match our requirements. In search of a better, cheaper phone service, we are looking for:
- Service cheaper than our current rate by at least 20%
- We don’t want to log into our pc every time we want to make a phone call, so that rules out pretty much all of the free services like Skype, Gizmo Project, VOIP Buster, jajar etc.
- We should be able to use the phone just like a normal landline and make calls to other phones, not pc. This again rules out all of the free services…sob sob.
- We want to retain our existing home number.
- Must have E911.
- Ability to call internationally, especially to Malaysia and Singapore for free, as an added advantage.
The first three criteria left us with VoIP service providers such as Vonage, Viatalk and SunRocket. And since SunRocket’s Sunspots gives us FREE UNLIMITED calls to Malaysia and Singapore, this seems to be THE choice to go! With $299 per year (no taxes, hidden fees, yay!), we will be saving $219.64 a year!
However, given the good bargain, there are still some concerns that make us reconsider our choice:
- Though calls to Malaysia and Singapore (and Australia too, to our relatives there!) landlines are free, it costs $0.08 per min to call Malaysia’s mobile and $0.03 for Singapore’s mobile.
- Phone will not work if there is power or internet outage. However, every modern human has a cell phone anyway, so we can live with this.
- We have to keep our expensive cable plan, instead of a cheaper DSL, which requires a traditional phone line. Since DSL is not available to our area for some stupid reason, this is not our concern for the time being.
So given the setbacks above, should we get a cheap local plan and continue using the Purple Card? A quick glance at the VoIP review page shows that the cheapest plan goes to Zingotel for $5.95, which includes free local and 100 min US and Canada. This totals to $191.40, giving us an even more substantial saving of $327.24 per year! However, the user review shows that it has probably the worst customer service…which we will definitely regret!
So, to VoIP or not to VoIP? That is the question.
What is your take on this?
Honey, where’s the Diaper Money?
I was never good at managing money and I was a complete idiot when it came to investing. Until I met my better half, my “wilder, younger days” had contributed much of my earnings into the growth of Singapore entertainment and pub industries. Like how we always hear our grandparents mentioned about the stories of them or their parents who came from China with just a few bucks in their pocket; I came to the amorican land with a pathetic US dollar bank account and a broken guitar (trying to romanticize the whole thing for my future descendants to worship, muahaha).
Anyway, the biting reality hit me right before our wedding when I started to look into our future: housing mortgage, rising education fee, expensive healthcare etc. So I was kind of “forced” to look into ways of saving money, good investments and bargain deals. My interest gradually snowballed into hobby, and now instead of playing computer games at my free time, I scavenge the sea of information in the internet for good tips on saving and investing.
I will share with you on this blog some of the information. Hopefully all of us will become better at saving up money for the diapers, milk powder, education, toys, books, ipods, that spiderman figurine, that limited edition Barbie dolls, and many other things that one day your little angels will ask for and you can’t refuse :)
Anyway, the biting reality hit me right before our wedding when I started to look into our future: housing mortgage, rising education fee, expensive healthcare etc. So I was kind of “forced” to look into ways of saving money, good investments and bargain deals. My interest gradually snowballed into hobby, and now instead of playing computer games at my free time, I scavenge the sea of information in the internet for good tips on saving and investing.
I will share with you on this blog some of the information. Hopefully all of us will become better at saving up money for the diapers, milk powder, education, toys, books, ipods, that spiderman figurine, that limited edition Barbie dolls, and many other things that one day your little angels will ask for and you can’t refuse :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)