Roundup: GE Earth Rewards Card & Al Gore’s Nobel Half-Prize

I learned two environmentally friendly things today: 1) GE Earth Rewards card is the latest “theme” card in which instead of getting 1% cash back, it’s donated to an environmentally friendly cause, and; 2) Al Gore won half of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize (sharing it with the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change).

GE Earth Rewards Card - So how it works is that you “earn” 1% on all your purchases and then you can donate either half of it or all of it to environmentally focused charities that are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This card will not directly benefit you personally, since you can at most get up to 0.5% cashback and 1.0% cashback is the minimum standard nowadays. However, what you do get is the warm fuzzy feeling of reducing greenhouse gases and saving the Earth. I won’t be personally getting the card but there are plenty of things regular cardholders can do to reduce waste and greenhouse gases such as going paperless (paperless statements, direct debit payments, opt out of mailings) even if you don’t get a credit card to do it.

Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Half-Prize - There’s been a lot of complaining from folks saying this was a political thing and how he doesn’t deserve it; I think that’s a bunch of crap. How many people are now more aware of climate change because of An Inconvenient Truth? I know several people who used to laugh at me and my fiancee collecting recyclables but now, after watching the movie, have started recycling themselves. That’s powerful and laudable and I’m glad he won half. He’s donating it all to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

• Nickel makes sense of tax efficient money funds.
• Flexo gives an update on the financial literacy challenge. I personally put a hundred bucks towards the Washington D.C. Lenny’s Loot because I saw it on Mapgirl’s blog so lend your support! (To be totally honest, I donated in part because she supported me when I called out for support for the Make A Wish Ghent Bar Tour).
• JLP is buying a new TV and needs some advice.
• JD has some clever ideas for saving money at swanky restaurants.
• NCN finangled a free Sirius satellite radio receiver!
• MBH tackles coupled finances and looks at whether you should keep accounts together or separate.
• FMF shares an interesting tip: those who show up at a hotel the day of can often pay less than those with reservations. Advice? Don’t make a hotel reservation!
• Lazy Man resigned from his job and may consider blogging full time! And in complement, Ben writes about whether losing your job could mean finding happiness.
• Golbguru keeps the plastic on all of his stuff until the very last moment, it’s something I, and a lot of other people, do too.
• If you want to measure performance, it’s important to measure it against the right benchmark!
• Earn six figures online, gauranteed!, haha, nice SVB.
• Sun shares with us Kiplinger’s Best list.
• The September foreclosure numbers, despite being down, are still scary.
• It’s important to remember inflation when planning retirement!
• Renters are 50% more likely to be burglarized but only 43% have insurance. Bad math.
• I’ve started a nascent Balance Transfer Arbitrage blog that I’ll start putting arbitrage tips at. If you have some good ideas as to what you want me to write about, please let me know and I’ll gladly oblige!
• Lastly, this past week’s daily freebies at Daily Gratis have been pretty good, if I do say so myself. One freebie every single day, I won’t let you down! Tonight you can rent a movie from RedBox for free.