“What do you mean you don’t need money?”

“Well, uh, you know,” I stammered, suddenly realized how stupid I sounded. “I make an okay amount of money on the side, I don’t think I really need a full time job right now.”

She shook her head in utter annoyance.

It’s been about an hour since we started the discussion about how I can at times be a flake, never committing 100% to school or work.

“You need to commit to one or the other,” the infinitely more matured friend told me. “You should just get a full-time job right now and better your working habits.”

Somewhere along the conversation, I clamor out the now forever brilliant line.

“I don’t need to get a job. I don’t need the money!”

In retrospect, this was probably another moment where I showcased my occasional twisted value system to my friend.

This conversation happened about two years ago, when I was floating around contract jobs along with part and full-time school. I was far from being a kid fresh out of high school, yet I still held some moronic beliefs at the time. The act of recounting this story has now induced about fifty involuntary facepalm.

In many ways, my friend was the complete opposite of me. She was extremely goal oriented, focus, and unwavering in regards to her academics and career. If you were to ask me about solid work ethic, I would promptly point you to my friend as a prime example.

My problem — if you can even call it that — was that I’ve never had a real issue with money. Now, don’t get me wrong, long time readers will remember that I’ve accumulated over $10,000 in credit card debt from buying crap. But I was able to wipe that debt out within a year with a mindset and spending habit change.

I was able to do this while in college, without a full-time job, and yes, without specifically asking for assistance from parents.

I’ve never fully elaborated in details on how I was able to pay down the debt through the years of running this blog, instead, I’ve focused mainly on spending habits and savings mindset — because I’ve always believed that my situation was not exactly replicable.

Back in 2002, I had an online business while I was a freshmen in college, selling miscellaneous car parts. The parts with the highest margin would cost under $20 for a hobbyist to buy, and it was a no-frills just-for-fun part.

I took a risk and pluck down about a thousand dollar to order the initial parts, built a website/storefront, and through word-of-mouth, banner ads here and there along with specific advertising on certain car forums, I was able to make a decent income from a decisively non-full time job.

I’ll wake up in the morning, see the orders and money in my PayPal account, and spend an hour each morning fulfilling orders, printing out shipping labels, packaging parts, and shipping them out. If you’ve ever wonder why I wrote a post about printing postage online from home, now you know why.

During my sophomore year, I got a job at Bank of America, working in back-end operations, processing checks etc. The shift was usually from 5 to 9 PM. I probably didn’t need the additional income at the time, but I thought it would be a good experience to get a job that required me to conform to a set schedule. I most likely would have kept working at the processing center through my time in college, had Bank of American not closed it down and laid all of us off.

This time period was when the crazy spending started. I had dual income. I was barely 21 years old, the money was rolling in and my priorities was all over the place.

Money was never a real problem for me. The problem wasn’t that I didn’t have any money, the problem was simply that I was spending more money than I was earning. Which luckily for me, was relatively easy to fix.

It was through this period, and other subsequent events that I developed a strange attitude of “not needing a job” and “not needing money.”

There’s no doubt that I was a spoiled brat. Through some amount of work, slight risk taking, and fortuitous timing, I’ve always been able to make money whenever the need arise.

Ever since I became conscious of my spending, I was able to pile my savings up whenever I have income. And when the income dries up for whatever reason? I just stopped spending. I was a college student. My tuition was paid for via grants and out of my own pockets. I didn’t have a mortgage, student loan, car payment, or any major financial responsibility. Money? Who needs money, I thought to myself.

“You’re giving me an ‘I-want-to-slap-you-silly’ look,” I told my friend after I uttered the infamous line.

“That’s because you’re a moron,” she said promptly. “You may not need the money, but what about your family?”

“Uh…”

“What about your mom? She’s been working for the past 30 years. She bought a house for your sister and you to grow up in. She’s still paying the mortgage off.”

“Um…”

“What about your sister? She bought a house during the peak of the housing bubble and is now struggling as the recession hits full on.”

“Er…”

“And what about your dad? He’s also been working for the past decades. I know you’ve never touch the money he sent you because you’ve set it aside, but maybe perchance he may need some help too?”

The New York Times recently published a piece about a Colgate University graduate named Scott, highlighting him somewhat as a sample of recent college graduates “struggling” to find a job. Readers promptly ripped Scott apart in the comments because he decided to pass up a $40,000 a year job as he believes the job may lead to a dead-end career path. With his degree from a high-end university, Scott expects a higher starting salary and a career path to match.

Scott, and at a time, myself, believed that we didn’t need just any job. That we didn’t need the money. Scott is amongst the fortunate minority that was able to finish school without debt, thanks to tuition and board paid by his grandparents. He has no overhead, no debt, and thus he believes it affords him flexibility in looking for work. While his perspective is understandable, especially considering his family is far from struggling financially, Scott’s attitude is telling.

Never before have there been a generation so vastly full of themselves. As a millennial, I’ve met a wide ranging group of people within my generation. Many of us are indeed spectacularly intelligent, full of drive, energy, and the know-how to change the world. But for every world-changer, there are hundreds of thousands of us that are just normal.

We’ve expected a lot, because some of us were told to expect a lot. We’ve dreamed big, because some of us were told the sky is the limit. If you’re holding out on a job, because you “don’t need the money” — because you don’t need that particular job, consider the fact there are thousands out there dying to get what was offered to you.

To be sure, there are many of us that have the option to choose, whether because of hard work or thanks to some fortunate luck-of-the draw, its the way the world works. Life certainly isn’t fair, and some of us are simply in a better situation. Its okay to go for your dreams and take advantage of any opportunities presented to you.

But if there’s any inkling that you may be sacrificing the livelihood of your family, of your parents, of your grandparents, of anyone that you may care about — you should step back and consider the situation fully. In one of the greatest recession of modern time, a little bit of humility and self reflection can go a long, long way.

This post "“I Don’t Need To Get a Job. I Don’t Need the Money!”" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

One.. two… three… four… and five.

Odd. That’s five digits.

I blinked and counted again.

No mistake.  For the month of March 2009, I made a little bit over $10,000.

“Wow. Now if only I make that much every month,” I thought to myself. “I’ll be able to sit back, relax, scratch my butt, and be a baller.”

You may recall that I don’t really budget.  Any money I make via websites, consulting, projects, etc. gets funneled to my checking accounts, and once every 2-3 months (or whenever I’m not lazy), I tally the ballpark amount up and spit them into an Excel sheet for future reference.  On some months (when I was still in school full-time), my earnings are around  minimum wage level, and on other months I make a healthy five figure income. It all somehow manages to even out to a stable enough income where I can pay the bills and help the family out.

What really surprised me about March 2009 wasn’t the fact that I made a lot of money (relatively speaking for me), but it was the fact that I felt completely miserable during that very particular month.

So why did I felt miserable? Without going into an elaborate tale about how I failed as a human bean (mmm… I love beans), the misery was mostly due to various personal reasons, and not particularly because I was being a workaholic.

Upon reflecting that glorious month, I’ve realized a few things:

• I am almost certain that even more money wouldn’t have made that month any better. You could be spitting money at me, rubbing it all over my sexy body and I’d still feel pretty damn gross (okay that reads pretty gross too).
• What makes you happy or content in life isn’t money. It never really will be. Money, of course, does afford us plenty of opportunities and options in life. This is a fact that I can’t deny. However, what will truly make most people I know happy isn’t cold-hard cash, but rather the quality time they spend with friends and family.

Consider this: when its payday and we receive our paycheck, some of us may carry a smile that day. Is it truly because we’re now X dollar richer?  Or are you thinking about the things you can do with the money?

To be sure, many people aren’t always thinking about the happy things and experiences they can share with family and friends when payday arrives. They breathe a sigh of relief because there’s now enough money to pay the utility bill or to put food on the table for the week. There’s no escaping the fact that money will have a direct tie to the quality of life people can experience and enjoy.

Despite this, I can almost guarantee to you that for those of us that may be having it rough, for the many working poor and people that may be struggling, many of our fondest memories won’t be the day when we receive a  paycheck from X company, but rather its the day when Uncle Bob accidentally sets the grill on fire at the family picnic; the day when the rental car broke down while you’re on vacation but everyone managed to have a blast regardless; the day when your child took their first step; or simply that day when all the right people are around, and as you sit back to relax and chat with loved ones, not a single thought about money is on your mind.

This post "How I Made the Most Money I’ve Ever Made in My Life But Still Felt Miserable" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

The fact of the matter is, in the United States, many wait staffs rely on tips as their main income source — despite the fact that many people feels that a “minimum” tip standard has shifted the responsibility of paying wages from restaurant employers to customers. Depending on your region, culture, and background, you may find tipping to be a ridiculous notion or a fair custom.

Most restaurants will have a mandatory “gratuity” charge for a large party (6 or more etc.), and certain restaurants will have straight-up forced gratuity (eesh). On one hand, I can understand that dealing with a large party can certainly be bitch work; after all, you’re tending to more demands and needs — but on the other hand, its hardly considered gratuity when its mandatory (maybe all restaurants should just label them clearly as a large-party service charge instead of a gratuity charge).

To add more spices to the mix, a couple in Bethlema, PA, was recently arrested by the police because they refused to pay the mandatory tip for their party of six. Now before you think the two are complete cheapskate, apparently the party had to wait an hour for their table, and received next-to-nothing services during dinner. Some people might think its a bit trivial for the couple to get all huffed-up about a 18% gratuity that totaled $16, but I’m on the camp that thinks the restaurant owner is being silly to call the police over a $16 tip.

What do you think? Much ado about nothing? Are mandatory gratuity an abomination? Or are they a necessary component to ensure waiting staffs gets their due pay for their services?

photo credit: Vidiot.

This post "How Do You Feel About Mandatory Gratuity at Restaurants?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I was about fourteen years-old, and it was at that moment that I realized that I’m living in a not-so-safe neighborhood.  Drive-by shootings were not exactly an oddity in the area,  but seeing it in person in the afternoon instead of hearing it at the wee hours during the night was definitely a game changer.

Within years, my family and I moved to a nicer neighborhood.  The crime rate was lower, the sounds of late-night drive-bys was almost non-existent, and the ironic thing was that the new house is only a five minute drive away from the old one.

Whenever I tell the above story to people, the reaction is either wide-eye horror mixed with jaws dropping or the responses will be something along the lines of “Oh yeah? Well this place I lived at…”

Throughout my life, I’ve always lived in middle-class neighborhoods.  The neighborhood mentioned above was lower-middle class.  It was far from being the slums, but it wasn’t exactly Beverly Hills either.   Despite the occasional drive-bys, we never did felt that our lives were in real danger.   You practice common sense, don’t attract attention to yourself at odd places, and you mind your own business when you’re suppose to.

Even now, I still don’t feel that the neighborhood was a complete crap-shack, but if someone was to ask me about the worst place I’ve lived in, then this neighborhood would definitely be on top of the list.

What’s the worst neighborhood you’ve lived in?  What circumstances, if any, put you and your family there?

photo credit: thechannelc

This post "What’s the Worst Neighborhood You’ve Lived In?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

So my sister just got married recently and my immediate family just had our first (and by the looks of things, probably last) wedding.  The entire event went by smoothly enough, with me walking my sister down the aisle without incident. Yay. (Allthough the toast I gave sucked, thankfully I kept the speech as short as possible).

A couple of weeks before the wedding, I got curious on how much money people usually spend or give for a wedding, so I did a quick search online.

Turns out, giving money for a wedding is a bit tacky for certain parts of the country (obviously, for some culture it is entirely appropriate to give money for a wedding).

Allow me to elaborate. For my area, Southern California, I was under the impression that the unspoken rule is that if you give money, you should at least give an amount greater or equal to the cost per head for the reception.

But apparently the cost per invited guest guideline is considered tasteless in many area of the country according to various threads I read on the net (Metafilter, Yelp, iVillage, etc.)

For people that felt the above guideline is tasteless, I certainly understand their views that the entire ordeal can be made to feel like a quid pro quo  — something gift giving should never really be.  But many others in the discussion threads also argue that the cost of a wedding, especially in the Tri-State area, warrants guest giving at least the per cost amount (including whatever guest they bring along).

So what’s the money wedding gift giving etiquette in your area?  Is it tacky to give money?  What about having the rule of thumb that you should at least cover the cost per head?

Regardless of the money issue, I personally believe that you should give (money or not) whatever you’re comfortable with giving in relation to how close you are with the couple.  When in doubt, there’s always the wedding registry!

photo credit: digiyesica

This post "What’s the Wedding (Money) Gift Etiquette in Your Area?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I’m sure her kids will love this abrupt visit from an online stranger.  I’ve been told by my mom that I’m super awesome and good with kids, so everything should be super spiffy.

This reminds me of the trip I took last year when I went to Houston via Amtrak (for kicks and giggles). While waiting at the barren Houston Amtrak station for my friend to pick me up, I started up a conversation with a family waiting for a cab.

“So is this your first time in Houston?” asked the nice lady with two boys and one girl.

“Oh no, I’ve been here before when I visited family.”

“Oh so you’re visiting your family again?”

“Actually no, I’m visiting my friend.” I told her nonchalantly, “I hope I can recognize her.”

“That’s very sweet of you. Has it been awhile since you guys have hung out?”

“Um… actually I’ve never met her before.  She’s a friend that I met from the Internet.” I told the nice lady as she noticeably shifted one of her kid away from me.

Momentarily of silence later…

“Oh don’t worry. I’ve talked to her for years — on the phone too.  I’m fairly sure she’s real and I won’t be robbed or murdered.”

Still some moments of silence…

“And it’s not what you think.  This isn’t one of those visit.”  I continued, “I’m staying at her boyfriend’s house, who was kind enough to offer me a night in his spare bedroom.”

“What was that?” I asked, “Oh, um… no, I’ve never met him before too…”

Sign of the times, I guess.  A few years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined myself making friends or working with people online.  Now I’m seeking lodging from fellow bloggers.

Zomg! Welcome to the 21st century?  Still not brave enough for CouchSurfing.com though.

This post "Bumming at Another Blogger’s Home" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Probably opening up a can of worms to a classic debate… but the question popped into my mind again while reading Madame X’s latest posting on the subject at My Open Wallet.

It’s a tough question because it brings up all sorts of issues on equality, feminism, and independence.

Personally, call me old-fashion, but I still have a certain drive to foot the bill when the check comes. My reasoning? It’s mostly because I’m the one begging asking for the night out.

Am I a sucker perfect for targets by “gold diggers?” Probably not, since driving a Honda Civic doesn’t exactly scream baller.  And the fact of the matter is, most people should be able to spot a less than genuine intention.

And this goes both ways too, of course. If you’re the guy and you’re paying the bill for silly reasonings, other than simply wanting to treat someone out, it’ll come across as pretty obvious.

At the end, I also believe that the entire thing can be a moot point as long as both party is on the same page when it comes to the matter.  As long as there aren’t any strange strings attached, it shouldn’t be an issue whether the guy or the girl pays for the bill — first date or not.

What’s your take?

top photo credit: fortinbras

This post "Should the Guy Always Pay the Bill for Dates?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

So a few nights ago I met up with a stranger at a local Coffee Bean, handed him an Acer Aspire One netbook and in exchange got $310 in cash for my trouble.

I sold my first item on Craigslist and I didn’t get scammed, robbed, or raped (being incredibly handsome, this was always a concern). Success!

The funny thing about Craigslist is that I’ve used it only once before.  I was using it to find myself a room and some roommates — which oddly enough worked out very well. I got myself a big, clean room for 3 months, met some awesome German roommates, made some nice friends, and partied like it was 1999.

But I’ve read enough of Craigslist crazies (and wacky listings) to know that I got off lucky and was doubly lucky that my for sale listing on Craigslist netted a solid buyer straight off from the second email (2 AM email, 8 PM sell the very same day).

While giving my best salesman pitch of the Acer netbook to my patron and his girlfriend, the veteran Craigslist buyer shared with me some of the aforementioned wacky stories from his experiences of selling and buying on Craigslist, one of which involved someone offering him a newborn puppy in exchange for his  iPhone. Lovely.

Now I’m not going to straight out and recommend Craigslist as the de facto place you should use to get rid of your crap, but Craigslist definitely has its advantages (free is always good).

This post will of course be awfully more useful if I list some safe buying/selling tips on Craisglist, but to be honest if you read their safety page and follow common sense, trading and using Craigslist should be a fairly enjoyable experience.

If you have any crazy or awesome experiences with Craigslist, do share.

This post "Sold My First Crap on Craigslist" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

That’s a snapshot of  the wireless networks in my neighborhood. A far cry from the one network (mine) that I was use to seeing back in the early 2000s.  If by chance one of those network is yours, you now know that one of your neighbor is a famous Internet blogger.

Please don’t rob me.

I can’t recall which web forum I read this from, but the story goes something like this:

I’ve been trying hard to save money due to hard times, and one way I’ve been doing that is canceling my internet service subscription. For the past couple of months, I have been “borrowing” my neighbor’s Internet. Anyone else doing this?

- Random Web Dude

I applaud the saving mentality but that’s a pretty gray line he’s walking on.

Now I know the debate for the “that’s not stealing” crowd usually goes along the lines of “if they openly broadcast their wireless connection, then its not stealing.”  But if you’re using someone else’s service as your primary means of net access, without prior approval or knowledge… then it gets a little bit shady.

Of course, there’s plenty of different scenarios, and in many cases people that have their networks open just doesn’t care if someone else use their service — occasionally some of these people even openly promote it.

Personally, if you want to save some money by going the sharing route, just ask your neighbors if they’re willing to share.  Be a bit reasonable and maybe chip in a little for their Internet service.

Lastly, if you don’t want anyone piggybacking on your wireless network or stealing your bandwidth, secure your network and the issue will be a moot point. Most modern routers come with a quick setup guide going over securing your wireless service. If you lost your user manual, a quick search on Google by typing in the router’s name and “secure wireless.”

This post "“Borrowing” Neighbor’s Internet to Save Money" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Remember back during your high school economics class, where you strolled into the school’s computer lab (or equivalent) and your economics teacher proceed to tell you and the class to pick various stocks, in some surely well-thought out plan to teach you about the stock market?

Yeah, that’s about the only thing I remembered from those “stock picking” lessons too. In fact, I can’t even recall what stocks I picked. So much for learning about the market and investing.

Like the other high schools in the local school district, my high school didn’t have a personal finance class. I always assumed this was the case across the country till I read more on the subject in recent years (turns out my district was just more ghetto than I thought).

The debate on requiring personal finance classes in secondary school has been discussed on numerous personal finance blogs, and the usual question seems to be asking if these important life skills are the domain of the school or of the parents.

Personally, even if my high school had a personal finance class, I would have probably paid as much attention to it as I did with my driver’s education class (which was none at all).

Here’s the question: (Poll link for RSS peeps)

[poll=4]

The question and the poll can of course be much more detailed; such as if you had a personal finance class or not, and if you did learn something, was it just a little bit or did you learned a lot. But let’s keep this simple since my fingers are tired from all the typing (whew, 296 words, broke a few sweat there).

Feel free to share what you’ve learned, if any, via the spiffy comment form.

top photo credit: Corey Leopold

This post "Did You Learn Anything from School About Personal Finance?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

It has been going on for the past year or so, with the in-law’s brother showing up in a predictable pattern — staying for a month or so, leaves, and eventually shows up a month or two later for yet another extended “visit.”

Initially, my cousin wasn’t too happy about it. She’ll get into arguments with her fiance, and at times was so upset that she avoids coming home as it felt less like her home.

In recent days however, it seems my cousin and her fiance are more nonchalant about the freeloading. Whether it’s because they’ve given up on the situation or have grown accustom to the mooching, I’m not sure, but deep down, I suspect neither of them are happy about the problem.

There are many things they can probably do, one of which is of course put their foot down and kick the fiance’s brother out. Various other suggestions are abound on the Internet, some bordering on the extreme (sell beds, sofa, and couches in the home, get rid of food in fridge, have loud sex, etc.).

I thought about stepping in and talking to the offender in question, but on further thought, regardless of how close I am to these people, that may be overreaching a bit.

It’s a tough situation really, as I can tell the problem is putting an emotional and financial strain on the couples.

Have you dealt with a freeloading family member before? What did you do about it? Suggestions for the couple in question?

This post "What to Do About a Freeloading Family Member?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

My piece-of-crap, six years old, 3.2 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P7 digital camera has finally crapped out on me.

It’s four in the morning and I’ve just spent about two hours prying the camera apart, trying to figure out why the lens will no longer extend out when the camera is powered on.

After electrocuting myself (ah… so thats why they have non-conductive film wrapped around that area) and fumbling with the gears that extended the lens, I still couldn’t figure out why the damn thing is broken. The motor’s working but the gears won’t spin — even though the teeth on the gears appears to be in working order.

There’s a guy selling two of the gears on eBay for ten bones, as these particular lines of Cyber-shots are prone to lenses being stuck in the housing due to gears breaking (a frequent solution touted by people from Googling is dropping or banging the camera against the floor — no joke).

I can buy the replacement gears and see if it’ll do the trick, but I might just be wasting additional time and money — after all, there’s no guaranteed the new gears will fix the problem.

You’ve probably been in this situation before. Your old “good enough” piece of crap that you’ve been using for years finally broke down, and you have to make the decision to either repair it or replace it. It gets especially annoying when the part is easily replaceable, but is costly due to rarity or time consuming due to the part’s location.

Now, I can easily buy another “good enough” digital camera for around $50-$80 bucks. The gears that may fix my old camera cost $10, and it’ll probably take me another hour or two to replace the gears. An hour or two of my time, believe it or not, is actually worth more than $60 — but realistically, it’s not like I’ll be using those specific hours to “work.”

Hmm… what should a cheap and lazy bastard do?

[poll=3]

This post "When It Cost Too Much Time & Money: Buy New Crap?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I’m so going to jail?

Was out of town last week on a short notice and I completely forgot to call-in and reschedule my jury duty appointment.

Jury duty isn’t so bad really, but I may have a slight biased as I have a somewhat above average sense of civic duty from the horrid wonderful days of being an Eagle Scout.

Depending on your count or state, the penalty for consecutively missing jury duty can vary from a hefty fine to jail time, so you shouldn’t simply toss the jury summons in the trash.

Most court clerks are fairly reasonable and will try to reschedule your jury duty date to a reasonable time — and for my county, jury summons are always sent weeks in advance so it isn’t too difficult to plan for.

Strangely enough, I’ve had a summons almost every year while some people I know have never received a jury summon in their life time.

Most mid to large size courthouse are ramping and modernizing their jury duty process to make life easier for jurors. Some, like my courthouse, offers free Wi-Fi access — although I don’t have a laptop so I usually just bring a good book or a notepad.

If you have never served as a juror and you have some free time, it may be something you can consider volunteering for — the lack of a proper jury pool is a significant problem in many parts of the country. It can be an interesting learning experience to see how the judicial process work and see your tax dollar at its best (or worse).

This post "Ah Crap. Missed Jury Duty Again." is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

photo credit: cindy47452

Oh man. Just what you’ve been waiting for, another post on gas prices on yet another stupid blog (to be fair, I don’t believe I’ve ever really griped about gas prices on this blog).

I’ll be honest and admit that I use to have a really smug attitude towards people who complain about gas price increase.

“If a couple cents of increase in prices can affect you that much financially, then gas is the least of your worries.” I’ll often thought to myself.

Yeah, I’m an ass.

Being that I’m a bit older and less of a moron now, I came to realized that despite the fact that other developed nation have higher fuel prices, relatively speaking, gas prices can still affect many people in the United States. After all, not everyone drives a 30+ mpg car like me, nor do they have a less than 5 miles per day commute.

Many people across the country have long commutes because they can’t afford housing closer to their job location, and for others, their main profession requires the use of gas in such a way that changes in price directly affects their income.

With gas prices averaging $3.87 as of this post, I am very fortunate that changes in prices affects me minimally. But of course, that’s not the case for many other people today.

Has the increase in gas prices affect your travel plans or your daily life? Do share.

Six Quick Gas Saving Tips:

1. Take it easy.
   Driving at a reasonable speed will conserve gas. As a rule of thumb, you can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.20 per gallon for gas.
2. Cruise Control.
   Engaging cruise control on the highway for better fuel management.
3. Lighten Up.
   Take everything out of the car that you don’t need so your engine doesn’t have to work as hard. If packing for a road trip, try to keep luggage inside the vehicle rather than strapping to roof where it creates wind resistance.
4. Stay in tune.
   Keep up with regular maintenance. Simple things such as changing the engine air filter on a needed basis can improve gas mileage as much by 10%.
5. Pump them up.
   Properly inflated tires play a big role in good fuel economy. Check the sticker at the driver side door or glove box for the proper inflation pressure. Besides affect fuel economy, under/over inflated tires can significantly affect ride handling, vehicle safety, AND add unnecessary wear to your tires, costing you more money in the future.
6. Cool it on the AC.
   Use air conditioners conservatively. Most air conditioner have a “economy” or “recirculation” setting that reduces the amount of outside air that must be chilled.

Related Links & Resources:

• How To Save at the Pump: 62 Ways – Free eBook (440 KB PDF)
• Tips to improve your Gas Mileage – FuelEconomy.gov
• Brand Conscious Buying #3 – Gasoline

This post "Higher Gas Prices – Does it Really Affect You?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I suppose it would be foolish of me to question multi-billion dollar companies’ decision to roll out a feature for their payment cards — after all, they must have done enough research before hand to see if it was worth the additional cost to include the embedded chip for contactless credit/debit card payment.

Plus, it’s not even really about making it convenient for the consumer — it’s about removing one less barrier so that people will use and spend more with their credit/debit card.

Quick info on contactless payment:

• VISA: payWave
• MasterCard: PayPass
• AmericanExpress: Express Pay
• Chase: blink
• No signatures required for purchase under $25

When I received my shiny new Chase Freedom credit card last year, it came with contactless payment ability. Thinking it to be very neat, I decided to gave it a whirl at my local fast food joint, but there was only one minor problem…

It didn’t work.

So I was standing there, waving my credit card to the reader, looking like a tool — for whatever reason, the reader wouldn’t pick up the radio frequency from my credit card. The funny thing was, the cashier didn’t realize the store had a new contactless reader installed, so she politely told me that that isn’t the right way to use a credit card.

After that delightful experience, I never bother using the contactless payment option again, even when I visit merchants with contactless payment readers.

However, things changed last week when I received a mailer from Chase, informing me that I’d receive a $10 statement credit if I use my blink-enabled Chase Freedom credit card at local participating merchants. As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’m a cheap bastard, so if you wave a free $10 in front of me, I’d be up for some on-the-way frivolous purchases.

Of course, the contactless payment didn’t work again.

At first I assumed my card has a defective chip, but the cashier quickly inform me that the reader I’m trying to scan with hasn’t been working properly lately.

Three other readers at three other merchants later, I finally stumbled onto a local McDonald’s with a working reader. I bought myself a double cheeseburger, wolfed down 1.5 grams of tans fat, and all of this within seconds thanks to contactless payment technology.

I use to hate self check-out machines, but these days I find them to be quite convenient for small purchases. Maybe once I get over the fear of embarrasment from waving a credit card in front of a device with nothing happening, I’d use contactless payment more.

Will I spend more as the credit card companies hope? Probably not. Does contactless payment “speed up transaction significantly” as Chase claims? Even when they were working, I honestly didn’t notice any difference.

Related Links & Post:

• Self Check-Out is NOT Fun
• To Pay, Wave Here – SmartMoney Magazine
• Contactless Smart Card – Wikipedia
• RFID: Problems & Concerns – Wikipedia

This post "Contactless Card Payment: Real Convenience or Just Novelty?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I truly believe that I want financial independence bad enough to climb those walls and get through those barriers.

But why?

Is it simply about retiring in comfort? Having enough saved up so that in my advance years, I can hum around in style, store my infinite supplies of Cheetos in my fancy pantry — that happened to came with my nice big suburban house?

Are we all spending less than our means, saving diligently, and investing wisely, just so that we can live in the future without worries?

For me, those are a part of the reason. I would be crazy to choose a life of worry and financial difficulties, especially in my later years of life. Plus, why not? Everyone always tout that basic personal finance values are common sense. Spend less than you earn. Build an emergency fund. Invest wisely.

It’s entirely boring. There’s nothing sexy about the system, but the math works.

Even so, why follow common personal finance adage? Why should any of us pursue financial independence, which as it turns out, is a very subjective thing? Some of us are fine with a house well-stocked with food. Some of us want the yacht, private jet, and houses with 10,000 square ft. ballrooms. Nothing wrong with either goals in my opinion.

I often debate the subject of why within my own head, but as I grew older, the reasons started to become much clearer and much more focused.

Everyday, I wake up and see my mom heading off to work. And although I don’t get to see him often enough, I know that my dad is doing the very same thing, getting up at six in the morning to head off to work. Many of you reading this do the same thing everyday.

Although our reasons may be shaped with different words and different ideas, I believe the underlying goals are the same as my own reasons for wanting financial independence: it is for the love we have for our loved-ones; for their well-being, for their happiness, and for their comfort in life.

One of my mom’s financial goals was to earn enough money to buy a nice little house in Fountain Valley, CA, so that my grandfather can live his later years in comfort. As the years went on, my mother got closer and closer to her goal, but things came to an abrupt halt when my grandfather passed away due to cancer.

I still remember that day clearly…

My family and I gathered around my grandfather’s hospital bed, and as he passed away, my aunt and uncles started to cry aloud their father’s name. My grandmother clung onto the hands of the man she’s been with for the past sixty years, and I stood in the back of the room… wishing my family wouldn’t have to go through this experience.

Despite the untimely death, my family and I were truly blessed. Tens of thousands of others pass away each day without the surrounding comfort of their family and the care of a modern medical facility.

At the end, all of us being there that day was the founding reason why I wanted to achieve financial independence — to also be surrounded by family and loved ones during some of my final moments in life.

To feel their warmth, look upon them, and know that they will be taken care of. To be comforted by the thought that they will continue to be happy, be well-supported, and be able to somehow contribute to the improvement of this crazy round ball we all live on.

And of course, to be able to smile and ask them, “Did I ever told you guys about this silly, stupid blog I had on the World Wide Web…?”

This post "Why Financial Independence?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

On the way home, I decided to hop by the ATM to get some cash for my el-cheapo $8 haircut when I realized that I just got some cash earlier. A quick count of the amount revealed that sure enough, the party paid for their fair share of the meal, accounting for taxes and tip – nice!

This made me realize that had the amount been off, it would have bothered me… even if it was just a few bucks here and there (probably not a good trait to have).

I’m sure everyone has experienced similar situations where you decided to split the bill but one party or person always come up short on the amount, neglecting tip, taxes, or forgetting that they ordered a drink here and there.

For whatever reason, stuff like this really bugs me (too cheap?). I’d much rather the person not pay at all, or at the very least acknowledge that they don’t have enough on them. This isn’t a big deal when you’re dinning amongst friends, but if you’re in a large party and a few people come up short, the end result isn’t too pretty and someone will get screwed over.

Solutions? Uh… don’t eat out? Make sure you have dinner with non-stingy people? *shrug*

This post "Splitting the Bill & Accounting for Taxes + Tip = Awesome" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Yesterday, while walking from one class to another, I walked pass a dollar bill on the ground.

A few steps later, the image of the bill on the ground finished processing in my brain.

“Hey wait, that was a dollar!”

So I did a roundabout and came face to face with the crumpled up dollar bill on the ground.

Hmm.

Two seconds went by and I convinced myself that it wasn’t worth picking up.

But, as I began to head toward the classroom again, another part of me thought I was being incredibly stupid.

“What’s this? You’re hesitating about the seconds it’ll take to pick up that dollar? Oh I’m sorry Mr. Millionaire, you’re suddenly too good to bend over for a dollar. I see how it is.”

Besides the conversation I was having with myself, the whole thing was pretty stupid. Had you been at this particular school, on a hot day in Southern California, you would have seen an idiot pacing back and fort between a crumpled up piece of green paper on the ground.

I eventually picked up the dollar, but at this point, after pacing back and forth about three times, I felt incredibly stupid and shady.

And that’s the really interesting part — when I pick up coins off the ground, I would flip it up in the air, catch it and file the event away as a lucky day.

But for whatever reason, when I find amounts higher than $1 — I’d feel like I’m stealing or something. As if the money didn’t belong to me (and it doesn’t). So to alleviate that feeling, I’d generally throw the money into whatever charity box I come across.

Had I just applied Madame X’s Rule #3: Found Money without question, this whole stupid moment wouldn’t have occurred. Tsk tsk.

How much money will it take for you to pick up money found on the street? $0.10? $0.25? $1.00? Or maybe you won’t pick up money on the street?

This post "How Much to Pick Up Money on the Street? $0.10? $0.25?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Ever got burglarized? Or worse, robbed?

Over eight years ago, I was walking home from school, feeling pretty good about myself because I was getting my “exercise” for the year. As I opened the front door to my house and got ready to dash up the stairs, I noticed some broken pieces of glass on the floor from the backyard door. My eyes followed upward, and when I saw the hole in the backyard door’s lites, I immediately realized what had transpired.

Suddenly, I heard a door slammed-closed upstairs.

I stood there and froze.

Four very long seconds passed by and I decided to slowly walk out of my house. I wasn’t sure if the wind had slammed shut a door, or if the burglar was still in the house — whatever the case, I wasn’t about to stick around to find out.

I ran to the neighbor’s house, rang the doorbell, and upon not getting a response — knocked on the door as calmly as I could.

“Uh, can I borrow your phone? My house got broken into and I’m sort of not sure if the burglar is still around…” I told my neighbor as I stared back at my house.

After telling the police operator the situation, I realized that there’s not much else I can do so I stood there and waited.

To the my citiy’s police department’s credit, two police cruiser showed up within minutes. The officers came up to me and quickly asked me for further information, and what follow suit were like scenes from a television crime drama.

The group of four officers drew their firearms, and two of them proceed to head to the back of my house, in case whoever might still be in the house tries to make a run for it. As the remaining two officers cautiously head into my house via the front door, I looked at my watch and my heart skipped a beat.

It was four in the afternoon — my sister’s class ended earlier. She might have been home.

Oh shit, I thought to myself.

Oh shit, I hope she wasn’t home when this happened. Please, please don’t let her be home.

I wanted to tell the officers, but by this time they were already in my house, and they gave me strict instruction to stay put outside.

Floods of unthinkable images rushed through my mind, and I swallowed hard.

To make matters seeminly more dramatic, it started to rain.

So there I was, holding my neighbor’s phone in one hand, standing in the middle of the street as I wonder if my sister was laying hurt (or worse) in her room — and it was raining.

Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either.

Thankfully, the drama ended there.

No one was upstairs. It was just the wind. My sister decided to hang out with her friends after class that day. My house got ransacked. Socks used as gloves scattered throughout the second floor. A few hundred dollars was taken from my drawer. A couple of thousands dollars and numerous jewelry was stolen from my mom’s room.

My sister’s room was untouched — her room was extremely messy, and the thief didn’t bother to search through her room. Heh.

The detectives told us that it looked like a standard smash and grab job, and by the patterns of ransack, they most likely didn’t stick around for a long time — especially since they didn’t bother to go through my sister’s room.

I wouldn’t say this was an everyday experience, but the fact that I almost forgot about the event made me realized that it didn’t have that much lasting impact on me. Had it not rained that day, I probably would have forgotten about this whole ordeal.

I’ve heard from others that have felt more violated after a burglary, and some have also felt like their privacy was invaded — but for whatever reason, I never felt like that. Of course, had this been a robbery, I imagine my feelings would be quite different.

True, for a few moments while I was standing there in the rain, I was quite scared. All the possible worse case scenarios were running through my head, but upon hearing the all-clear from the officers, I breathe a sigh of relief.

It bummed me out that I didn’t deposit my money into the bank earlier, and my mom was that her valuables were stolen — but at the end, my family was safe, and we all knew that’s what’s really important.

Have you ever been burglarized or robbed? How did you feel afterwards? Feel free to share.

Related Link:

• The Best Place to Hide Money: Conversation with a Burglar – PFadvice.com

This post "Have You Ever Been Burglarized or Robbed?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

We have comments about identity theft from moms and sisters — pretty difficult stuff.

Have you ever been screwed financially by a family member? It doesn’t necessarily have to be an identity theft situation.

I think I’m extremely fortunate that I’ve never been harmed financially by any famiy member (at least, not that I’m aware of).  If it ever happens, I will most likely know how to deal with it practically, but emotionally… eh.

This post "Ever Got Screwed Financially by a Family Member?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.