After my freshman year of college I was hooked up by a friend of mine’s father, who also hooked up his son and another friend of ours, with a software development job at a company called Periphonics, later bought out by Nortel Networks. It was a good experience, working at a relatively large company (i.e. not a startup), but I always felt that the level of enthusiasm, sense of ownership and the desire to conquer simply wasn’t present at a large company… hence my joining a startup the next summer (that is now bankrupt!). Summer internships are about learning and having fun so…

If you’re moving towards a summer job, first you want to read this article by Ben Bleikamp about how you should skip the traditional summer internship and then, once you’re convinced your time is better spent doing something interesting (use an internship to explore!), consider taking on an internship with Noah Kagan. Noah’s offered a bounty of $50 to the referrer of his eventual peon, and if it’s me then tell him to give you the $50 so you can get a decent shirt and a couple beers.

A CNN Money article made it sound like Monopoly was going to get a complete overhaul with the old version was going to go the way of the dinosaur. Actually, Hasbro is just putting out another edition, called Here & Now, where everything would be updated to reflect the current times. I’m glad they aren’t replacing the classic, just putting in another edition to join the hundreds of other college themed, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, blah blah editions out there. I think it’d be nice if they took the originally edition and simply updated the graphics, keeping everything else the same (like buying property for a hundred bucks).

If you want, you can vote on what cities will be where (the more popular, the higher the value, i.e. 1st place gets to be Boardwalk and Park Place). It’ll be fun to see how it all shakes out. Voting ends on May 12th.

Want to see an interesting comparison of the interest rates of HSBC, ING Direct, Virtual Bank, Emigrant Direct and the Federal Funds rate in a table and easy to understand chart? Me too. That’s why I stumbled onto a thread at Fatwallet Finance documenting the interest rates of all those savings accounts (there are a couple more that I omitted) I thought a graphical representation would be an interesting thing to see. Historical is in quotes because this only goes back to January ‘05 so it’s not exactly History Channel type depth but I think it’ll suffice.

Some thoughts…

Actual history and a line chart after the jump.
(read full article…)

Bored? Trying to relax and unwind? Then you definitely don’t want to be on the computer and reading about personal finance. For everyone else, here are some choice bits that I thought were entertaining and/or informative reads.

Mighty Bargain Hunter talks about cheap magazines and going toe to toe with a challenger (tongue in cheek of course).

JLP discusses some tips from Neale Godfrey’s A Penny Saved about teaching your kids about money and responsibility.

Nickel reports that 74% of respondents to his poll stated they received a refund. I forgot to vote but I received a refund and I really don’t care that I lost out on $2.54 in interest in my interest-free loan to the government.

Want to read about another successful visit to Disneyland? (for Disney, of course, which I am part owner) Flexo writes briefly about his trip to the happiest place on Earth.

FMF gives an obvious tip, save money by paying your bills on time, but adds a very important and quantifiable statistic: how much the average family will have to pay extra in fees and interest for missing one payment (and the rippling effects of that missed payment on their credit score).

Kay Bell of Don’t Mess with Taxes (love the play on words) talks about her desire to end an undervalued Lincoln.

Can you last a week without television? Dawn says she’s been overworking her imagination so she’s going to skip tv-free week this time around. As for me, Lost has a new episode this week so no chance of me shutting off the tube for seven days.

This applies to the latest news prior to the rate stabilization legislation enacted in mid-2006. Proceed to the following link if you’re interested in learning the latest 2007 Maryland BG&E rate hike news.

Governor Ehrlich revealed a deal on Thursday where the shock of energy price hikes, an estimated 72% increase, would be spread out over 18 months (if you opt into it) instead of immediately hitting in July. In this new deal, customers are paying the same amount (there is no relief at all), it’s only spread out more. This deal does not save you money. The plan is a little complicated because how much customers will pay depends on whether a merger between Constellation and FPL Group Inc. of Florida succeeds. If it does, those who opt in (by default you are not opted in) will only see a 19% increase on July ‘06 and then another 25% in June ‘07 and then whatever increase is necessary to reach market rates in January ‘08. If you opt in, you will pay a $15/mo. fee if the merger succeeds and $19/mo if it fails. Those who opt out pay no such fee. Basically the deal that supposedly died a week or so ago went through, except it ignores all the sticking points.

(read full article…)

Yes, you read that title correctly (because it goes contrary to what everyone else says) but it comes with a caveat, it’s only true if you’re cooking for one. My friend Perry, of pmoa.net fame, did a non-scientific study where he compared buying groceries and eating out. The caveat that you must understand before you go savagely flaming him is that he bought premium food (not cheap bulk stuff in an effort to save money) because when you go out to eat, you’re usually eating better stuff. Now, go over there and savagely flame him.

OTB

If you happen to live in the Philadelphia or Denver area, both of those Mints offer a free tour of their facilities. Unfortunately those are the only two that offer tours at all. For more information on tours for the Denver facility, click here, and for information on tours for the Philadelphia facility, click here.

Tours cover both the present state of coin manufacturing as well as the history of the Mint. Learn about the craftsmanship required at all stages of the minting process, from the original designs and sculptures to the actual striking of the coins. (tour information website)

If you’re a resident living in the Washington D.C. area, there is a US Mint Kiosk in Union Station that showcases some of the products for sale but not much else. “The kiosk offers the latest commemorative and annual coins, the popular new quarters, collector maps, medals, and a variety of coin jewelry.”

Folks who don’t live anywhere near any of those can go on a free Virtual Tour, if you have Macromedia Flash 7.

More Low Cost Weekend Ideas