“Woah! What are you saying?” you must be saying to yourself. Do I really think that the $31 fee per overdraft charged by PNC Bank is a good thing? What about the advice I gave about asking for a fee or charge by waived by a banking institution? I don’t think it’s a good thing and I still do think you should ask to have fees nixed, but if you give me a chance to explain what the title means I promise it’ll be worth it.

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There’s an unspoken rule in homebuying that you should look at six homes, minimum, before ever thinking about submitting an offer. When I submitted my offer, it was probably the sixth home… possibly the fifth or earlier, I can’t remember. They say that you can’t really know what you want until after the sixth home and you won’t get a feel for the market until that point. I wholeheartedly agree. If you buy before six (I think the rule should be extended to least ten homes), you will probably overpay for a home or possibly buy a home that you really only find mediocre. To avoid this, don’t put in an offer even if it looks like your dream home because it might not be.

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This is part three of five on alleged “25 rules of investing” that Jim Cramer has listed on his site, TheStreet.com, plus my own commentary. The first five were basically cute little catch phrases on some common-sense rules. Rules six through ten were a little more insightful, speaking to more subtle ideas such as not buying a crappy stock because you think it’ll be acquired (because it probably won’t). Well, let’s take a look at the next five…

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I don’t know why, I’m not complaining, but Ex24 sent me two iPod Shuffles. But you know what? The CEO left a comment the other day about how he couldn’t understand why I wasn’t investing the money during the six months. But, because they accidentally sent two I’m going to actually start playing the market a little bit as an inadvertant “gift.” Check out this picture of my two iPods becoming fast friends.

On an unrelated note, here’s a funny picture of the iPod Shuffle design back in the day. This picture made me laugh.

[ Related Ex24 Posts]

I’m sure a lot of you folks read Fatwallet Finance, the finance focused board on the Fatwallet site, and have considered doing the 0% balance transfer “deal.” The strategy even hit mainstream on CNNMoney in an article about some “millionaires” in the making. (CNNMoney Story, 2/7/05) If you have a mailing address, I’m sure you’ve received an offer of some kind from credit card XYZ to take some money for 6 to 12 months interest free. Then, you take the cash and put it into a very safe ING or Emigrant Direct account where it earns 3%. On paper, this plan looks incredible. You can get some free money for doing very very little… but there are pitfalls that I believe many are overlooking and those pitfalls are where credit card companies will fleece you without any hint of remorse.

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One of the easiest ways to earn a free beer is to answer short surveys. But have you seen the ridiculous ads where you pay $20-$50 to join a “network” and then get surveys where you make money? They’re BS. Over the years, I’ve found two survey groups that give you interesting surveys and actually pay you. The first is Pinecone Research and the second is GoZing and both are accepting applicants.

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Yep. First contract offering was a bust. The original offering of $290k with an escalation up to $300k was rejected but the details of the winner won’t be available until things are settled and posted to MRIS. The total contract value had to have been over $300k, which I anticipated considering there were three other offers all of which knew there were three other offers. At over $300k, my psychological barrier, it would’ve been too much. $299,999.99 would’ve been juuuust fine though. Go figure. But here are the gory details of the property…

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