Every so often I poke around in the “Special Offers” tab of my citi cards and today I saw the often advertised promotion of a cash rebate to cardholders if they sign up for a 30-day trial of Credit Protector, except this time there’s a link I can share with you all (that was it back there).

It’s your typical free offer for trying out the credit protector (those in Alabama and Mississippi are not eligible I’m afraid) and in return you get a $20 rebate good for any purchase. It’s easier than waiting for the letter to come in the mail (and usually a small check instead of a $20 rebate).

Be sure to cancel in 30 days.

The Vanguard STAR Fund is a Large-Cap Value mutual fund that has returned 11.10% since it’s inception in 1985 and was my choice for where my SEP-IRA contributions would go. The primary reason for selecting the STAR Fund was it’s low minimum investment of $1,000, since my employer contribution was capped at $461 last year, and because the low balance fee of $10 was only due if my balance fell under $500. (The standard SEP-IRA custodial fee for accounts under $5,000 still applied)

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Why am I opening a SEP-IRA? The short answer is because I don’t want to pay taxes today if I can delay them into the future, say, in twenty years or so when I’m gray and ready to sail off to the Bahamas. Right now, all the income from this blog and Bargaineering is considered self-employment income. On self-employment income, unlike regular employment income from my job, I have to pay a self employment tax and an income tax – double whammy.

The self-employment tax is based on the income reported on Schedule C: Profit or Loss From Business (link to the Schedule C instruction pdf from the IRS) and is 15.3% of the net income (profit). So you pay that and, since the business income is reported as income on your tax return, the regular income tax you pay. If you made $1,000 in business profit and are in the 25% tax bracket, you pay $153 in SE tax and $250 in income tax, for a total of $403 in taxes on $1,000 of additional income. Ouch.

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Last month, new home sales fell, existing home sales spiked, and I want to know does that really matter to you? They say that new home sales are indicative of the future of the housing market because it’s based on signed contracts for new home delivery sometime in the future, usually a month. Existing home sales are recorded at closing which occurs a month or more after the signing of a contract, so it lags the state of the market. However, both are national measures which we all know aren’t accurate because a quick look at what $300k can buy you in Houston, TX and Howard County, MD will show you that the market in both areas of the country have been moving at different speeds.

I believe the only place national stats matter is when you’re talking mortgage loan rates and the housing market lags mortgage rates. The rates are going up, that’s why housing sales are decreasing, it’s not the other way around. So really, I don’t think national stats matter at all when you’re thinking about selling or buying a home… the local stats matter significantly more.

Here’s some good posts from the past week you should check out this weekend if you have the time:

Free Money Finance has a great tip for the frugal ones out there, check out the discount racks and bins for great deals. My girlfriend and I were shopping and saw boxes of whole wheat brand named pasta (Barilla I think) on clearance (I guess they weren’t too popular) and snagged them up.

Five Cent Nickel is having his (or should I say his lovely and talented wife) moving sale today in preparation for a big move.

All Things Financial is having some legal woes regarding his name. If you have any advice, we’re all ears. And, while he has changed the title of his blog, I’m not. I can call his blog whatever I want.

Mighty Bargain Hunter has some ideas for what to do with that fat tax refund.

Consumerism Commentary stresses the importance of financial education as a means of overcoming the sobering stat that 9 in 10 affluent families lose their fortunes within 3 generations.

Daaarth Tater… How funny is that little guy? It’s $8.99 (seems a little steep don’t you think?) but it ships free from Toys R Us.

I expect Cap to write an “Woops Bought Crap” post in about fifteen minutes.

MyMoneyForest has, unfortunately, become another casualty in personal finance blogging and the site no longer exists.

Who is Tim at MyMoneyForest? He’s one of several “young” (he’s the same age as me) personal finance bloggers who have burst onto the scene lately and his perspective is that of the younger crowd. If you can get past the fact that he’s a Democrat, I think you’ll enjoy his blog. (Disclaimer: I’m a registered Independent)

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Today I saw yet another example of someone getting the shaft (and someone giving it) in a market order trade of Ford shares. Yesterday, shares of Ford closed at around $8.15 and this morning, in pre-market action, someone was able to snap up over 800 shares at $7.36, $7.26, and $7.27 – approximately a 10% discount. This is one of the risks of a market order, where you buy or sell shares at whatever the going rate is, even if it’s wildly unreasonable. These sort of worst case scenarios are always described as a perfect storm because you need the convergence of no sellers/buyers (other than the wild bid) and a market order.

If you look at Ford’s Real-Time ECN Order Book for Instinet (or any other stock), you’ll see some pretty out there limit orders (at the time there is a bid for 2250 shares at $7.70 and an ask at $8.44 for 2400 shares) that likely won’t get fulfilled unless something dramatic happens because there are a lot of orders in between. (if you keep an eye out you’ll see crazier things, like 2000 shares at $1)

What happens is you put in your market order, it gets matched to a crazy bid, and you get screwed because you were willing to sell or buy at any price.

Shares of Ford opened at around $8.07 this morning and someone(s) got hosed.