So, I have a few friends who like to gamble (did my Super Bowl betting post about my friend who won $1500 on the Giants’ safety give that away) but, surprisingly, that hasn’t translated into many games of credit card roulette. There are a few varieties of the game but the basic gist is that you go out, get some food, and when the bill comes, everyone throws in a credit card. The server takes out cards, one by one with a lot of drama, and the last one in there pays the bill. The last time I played was a few weeks ago at a local bar, it was only four people, it was really really exciting, and it was really really awesome when my friend Drew lost.

Hey Drew – thanks for the oysters, beer, and dinner!

What do you think about credit card roulette? Stupid and silly? Or should I have to claim that win on my taxes?

(Photo: stoneflower)

With the United States Postal Service hemorrhaging money, it’s easy to get confused as to the current price of a postage stamp.

The current price is 45 cents.

This is the price of a first-class letter weighing no more than 1 ounce. If the weight is no more than 2 ounces, the price is 65 cents. No more than 3 ounces and we’re talking eight five cents. Postcards cost 32 cents. If you purchased a First Class Forever stamp, you don’t have to worry about the current stamp price because that will always cover letters weighing no more than 1 ounce.

The last postage rate increase was on January 22nd, 2012.

(Photo: queen_of_subtle)

Ever since I signed up Netflix, the number of movies I’ve rented has gone down significantly. When I do, it’s usually from a Redbox kiosk. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I rented a movie that wasn’t from a Redbox (it was probably in high school, when Blockbuster still existed and was charging $4.99 a night!). More recently, I’ve been looking into Redbox again since Netflix changed their pricing structure and we opted to get only the Instant offerings, which usually don’t include new release DVDs.

We used Redbox a lot because we knew it was easy to find Redbox promotion codes. Even if we didn’t have a promo code, movies are only a dollar a day and we have multiple kiosks in the area, some within walking distance. Even if they are just a dollar a day, there’s something fun about getting it for free. I’ll explain how you can still get movies for free off Redbox.

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If you’ve done enough research about credit scores, you’ve probably heard the term “soft credit check” and “hard credit check.” They’re sometimes referred to as “soft pulls” or “hard pulls,” but the terms mean the same thing. A soft credit check is any check of your credit score or report that doesn’t affect your score.

It’s soft because it doesn’t hurt, things that hurt are hard. Hard credit checks can, and usually do, hurt your credit score. (OK, I don’t know why it’s called a soft check vs. a hard check, I just made that “hard things hurt” bit up)

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Take a quick peek at the best CD rates and you’ll know that they’re abysmal right now. 1% for a 1 year CD? No more than 2% for a 5 year CD? Those are terrible yields.

Consider this – you can buy shares of blue chip companies with yields greater than 1-2%. You can start by looking at the dividend aristocrats but ultimately you can easily find safe companies who have stable cash flows capable of supporting dividend yields much greater than 1-2% (and you’re taxed at a much lower rate!).

In the end, both are financial tools that serve a specific purpose. Knowing which to use can be crucial in getting a little more out of your money.

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Did you put in any wagers on the big game last night? I didn’t but my friend did and he cleaned up. Remember the safety to open the game? Tom Brady steps back, throws it down the middle with no one within twenty yards of the ball? Intentional grounding, safety, two points for the New York Football Giants? Well, as it turns out, the payout on a $20 bet that the first score of the game would be a Giants’ safety was $1500. I knew this because my friend, who was sitting next to me, had won it.

This was right after winning a few bucks that Kelly Clarkson’s singing of the national anthem lasted a hair under one minute and thirty five seconds. Oh, he rolled that over into a bet that the final scoring touchdown would be made by Ahmad Bradshaw (I bet the little hesitation made him nervous… but at that point he was playing with house money). So while I didn’t make a single bet… sitting by him, and winning vicariously, was awesome. Oh… and he is a Giants fan, so his team also won the Super Bowl. Not a shabby Sunday!

So now the real question remains… does he owe taxes on those gambling winnings? Yep.

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Do you absolutely hate going to the dealership and buying a car? Do you hate the games, the time wasted, the haggling and the long drawn out dance? It’s one of the reasons why CarMax has been so popular (we bought a car from CarMax just last year because they offered the best price and no dance), people just hate this silly game that dealerships make you play just to buy a car. The reality is that your average car buyer, who buys a car only one time every few years (hopefully many years if they’re lucky) is up against someone who sells cars every single day. We’re just not well equipped to battle in this arena, which is why buying a car when you’re a dealership, on their home field, is a mistake.

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When I first looked at the Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School by Andrew Hallam, I thought I was seeing yet another investment guru book that was going to collect dust on the shelf. When you throw around words like millionaire and wealth, it might catch the eye but I’ve seen enough of these to immediately think that the book was going to try to convince me to invest in something I didn’t fully understand. I was completely wrong.

Andrew Hallam isn’t an investment guru, he’s a teacher in Singapore who has amassed a net worth over a million dollars doing everything you’re supposed to. Spending less than you earn, investing in a smart way (keeping costs low), and all the various tenets we learn over our lifetimes that, honestly, should’ve been taught in high school. How your neighbor driving the Porsche is probably still paying off that car note and you shouldn’t be that envious of an asset that, in reality, is a liability that constantly loses value.

Best of all, the book is entertaining and easy to read. It’s not dry, it’s not boring, and it has plenty of anecdotes to keep you interested.

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Tell a few personal finance bloggers that you keep cash in your house and you will invariably be asked why. Why keep cash in your account when you can put it into a high yield savings account and earn a percent of interest? What if there is a fire? What if you get robbed? Why not put it in the warm embrace of FDIC insurance at th ebank?

I don’t keep much, usually only one or two hundred dollars, and the reason I do so is so I can get cash easily if I need it, whatever the reason. I don’t keep a lot, I don’t see the point given credit cards, but I do want to keep a little for those times when cash is king and credit can’t be accessed. I’m talking about those rare cases, like a black out or a big snowstorm (like the major snowstorm a few years ago in the Baltimore Washington metropolitan area), where you need some cash but just can’t get to a bank.

To be perfectly honest, the number one reason I do this is because I’m lazy. I don’t really think that there will be a calamity where I won’t be able to get to an ATM or use a credit card, but sometimes I’m going out somewhere and I need cash but don’t want to make a trip to the ATM. It’s nice to have a few bills at home so that I can tap that reserve instead of make that trip. That’s why I keep some money stored away at home, instead of earning a few pennies at the bank.

One final bit of warning, cash is usually not completely insured by your homeowners or renter’s insurance. So if you are robbed and they take cash, or there is a fire and the money burns, you may be limited in how much cash is covered – that amount will be listed in your policy. I don’t recommend keeping thousands of dollars at home, but a few hundred will probably be covered by your policy.

Do you keep cash at home? If so, why?

(Photo: amagill)

Form 8888 is titled the Allocation of Refund (Including Savings Bond Purchases) and is the from you use to indicate how you want your refund paid out to you. The form itself is very straightforward, there is a section for direct deposit, one for US Series I Savings Bonds, and one for the paper check. The purpose of the form is for you to tell the IRS how you’d like your tax overpayment.

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