Every year around this time, my electricity supplier sends me a notice about renewing our electricity supply agreement. Last year, I ignored it because the pricing was competitive and it automatically renews for a year. While we’ve only been using Washington Gas Energy Services for two years, I thought I’d take a closer look this year to make sure we’re still getting a good price.

The electricity supply agreement sets a flat annual kWh price on electricity supply of 10.8¢. In pricing electricity, usually there is a summer price and a winter price, with the summer price being higher in our area. With this agreement, it would be a flat rate throughout the year. To give you an idea of energy use, we typically use more energy in the winter than we do in the summer (about 1,000 kWh per month in the winter, 600 in the summer).

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When Ramit approached me about writing about his new I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp, I was a little hesitant. I was hesitant because I didn’t really know much about him, despite writing a few pages in his New York Times bestselling book I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and I didn’t know if it would really be worth it.

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If you’ve ever looked at a coin, chances are you’ve been interested in what was on it. There’s the year it was stamped, various Latin sayings, some images of buildings or famous individuals from US history, and there usually is a random letter. You probably know that the letter corresponds to the Mint facility that produced the coin, but what letter stands for what? How Mint facilities are there? Where are they located?

The United States Mint is the agency in the United States Government responsible for the production of coins used in the US. It was created in 1792 by the Coinage Age of 1792 and put within the State Department. Later that year, the Mint opened its main branch in Philadelphia, PA and soon expanded to include several facilities across the United States. In 1799, with the Coinage Act of 1873, it was made an independent agency.

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Think back to elementary school, can you remember how many times your school had a fire drill? They were never announced ahead of time, the bells just rang, everyone got up, lined up, and left the building in an orderly fashion. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do because it was scripted ahead of time. No one panicked because we always assumed it was a drill, even when it wasn’t. (which puzzles me why all of my employers pre-announced rare fire drills)

When was the last time you had a financial fire? Maybe the car broke down or you broke a window in your house. Maybe you were one of the many millions who lost your job last year. I bet, in most cases, you weren’t sure what to do afterwards.

That’s why I’m recommending that you conduct a financial fire drill.

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It’s Monday and that means we have another episode of the Personal Finance Hour where JD of Get Rich Slowly and I will discuss financial rules of thumb. I’ve always believed that rules of thumb are a good way to get a quick handle on a decision but it can’t be your only handle. You need to do a proper analysis of the situation before you make a decision. We’ll discuss a lot of rules of thumb from saving 10% of your salary to asset allocation according to age (yep, the 120 minus your age rule will certainly be featured).

The show will be on live at 6PM Eastern, 3PM Pacific and will be broadcast at this page, if you want to listen to it (it’s also recorded, so you can go to that page to listen in after it airs). As always, you can call in and listen live at 347-327-9144 to chat with us or just listen in the background.

Or click play on this widget (after 6PM on Mondays it will be that week’s show, before then and you’ll get last week’s show):

We are also on iTunes and you can subscribe by clicking on this link, which will open up iTunes.

We hope you get the chance to listen, perhaps call in and chat, or just pop on into the chat room to hang out. It can get a little rowdy in there but it’s good times I promise!

When you think of prepaid cell phones, what do you think of? If you’ve watched The Wire on HBO, a gritty drama about life in Baltimore, you associate them with drug dealers. If you were a fan of the Sopranos, you knew they were good for avoiding wiretaps. If you haven’t seen either, chances are you don’t associate them with anything. Most people don’t use prepaid cell phones because we naturally think to a nice buffet-type minute plan with a major carrier.

For our vacation to Europe, we used a pay as you go phone. We couldn’t use our own phones since we didn’t have compatible technology but our friend lent us her old phone. We went to a local Orange store (a pay as you go service company, bought a Sim card, and loaded it up with some minutes.

The cost of the chip? £0.

We put £5 on the phone and we now had cell service without a commitment, without any huge up front payments, and we only pay for the minutes we needed.

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Last week, I wrote an FHA loan requirement guide to help folks looking to find more information about the Federal Housing Administration’s loan insurance program. In that post and in emails, many readers told me that I should take a look at the FDA and VA programs because it may be more appropriate for someone looking to purchase or refinance their existing home.

This article will cover the loan guaranty service offered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, also known as the VA home Loan program.

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Next week I’ll be attending Pubcon in Las Vegas, a conference for online publishers, and one of the fun events going on is a charity poker tournament hosted by my buddy DK at Purposeinc. To participate, we were asked to write about our favorite charity and mine, without question, is the Ghent Bar Tour, which supports the Hope House Foundation. I don’t often write too much about the charities we support, which I probably should change for the future (let me know in the comments if you think so!), but I have written about the Ghent Bar Tour in the past (1, 2).

My friend Scott has been running the twice-annual Ghent Bar Tour for the last few years and I’ve had the great pleasure of being a sponsor every time he’s done it. He’s raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Make A Wish Foundation and Hope House Foundation. This past summer, they raised nearly $12,000 in one of the worst recessions we’ve seen in decades. That’s a testament to Scott, his team, the 75 volunteers, and all the generous sponsors who kicked in to support such a worthy cause.

Also, if you’ll be in Vegas next week, either for Pubcon or just for fun, shoot me an email and we can hang out.

Whenever someone talks about frugal expenses, Netflix always seems to be the popular example held up as the sacrificial lamb to the frugal gods. I think it’s a popular target because it’s so easy to attack. Subscribers pay a flat monthly fee to watch movies, a pure discretionary entertainment expense, and so many times our lives get in the way. Movies sit on the table unwatched, unreturned, and the only cost is a flat monthly fee. It’s all too convenient and so it makes an inviting target.

Before I was a convert I had no idea why people signed up for Netflix and took my fair share of shots at Netflix. So what changed my mind?

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OptionsHouse is offering 100 commission free trades for new accounts with promotion code FREE100. You must deposit at least $3,000 within 45 days and the 100 free trades expire after 60 days of funding. This offer expires December 31st, 2009.

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