Best Buy $50 gift cards

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AP) — Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. said Wednesday it will give gift cards to customers that bought HD-DVD players or HD-DVD attachments from its U.S. stores as the format goes away in favor of the Blu-ray standard.

Toshiba conceded the market to Blu-Ray and announced they were stopping production on HD-DVD players.

The products had to be purchased at one of the company’s stores prior to Feb. 23.

Best Buy said it will give a $50 gift card for each item, which will likely lead to the distribution of more than $10 million in U.S. gift cards.

The retailer said it will identify customers through its Reward Zone program, performance service plans and through online purchases and will mail out the gift cards to those individuals by May 1.

Customers that feel they won’t be identified through these measures can call the company and provide a Best Buy receipt or credit card information for proof of purchase.

Best Buy also said customers that want to get rid of their HD-DVD players can do so by visiting their online trade-in center starting March 21.

Earlier this month rival Circuit City Stores Inc. instructed its stores to “take care of our customers” and accept returns of HD DVD players within 90 days of purchase.

The HD DVD players can be returned for store credit. The policy doesn’t apply to HD DVD movie discs.

The biggest battle between two video formats since Betamax lost out to VHS in the 1980s was resolved after multiple movie studios, including Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. Warner Bros. Entertainment and News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox, pledged to support the Blu-ray format.

I purchased a dual video player Blueray/HD-DVD and I like Blueray better. It seems to be more compatible in my drive. The one I have is made by Liteon and it is installed in my MediaCenter computer.

1. It is difficult for fund managers with years of experience to beat the market so why not just invest in S&P 500 index funds or whole market index funds with low fees. Investors will beat out actively managed funds most of the time.

2.Fire your full service broker that charge really high fees or a percentage of your assets. If your paying 1.5% on $100,000 your paying $1500 per year in fees. This means that you will have to make 1.5% more on your money to just break even before inflation. Get a low cost broker like Ameritrade or Etrade.

3. Dollar cost averaging can help smooth out the roller coaster that is investing. Invest fixed amounts of money over a period of years to invest more when the market is lower and less when the market is higher.

4. Escape taxes by investing in municipal bonds. Municipal bonds pay lower rates, but they are tax free from state and federal taxes if you buy municipal bonds from in-state issuers.

5. Save for college in a 529 college savings plan. The sooner you start saving in this account the sooner it starts to earn tax free returns for your child’s future.

Money from paycheck to paycheck

Paying off your mortgage, putting the kids through college, amassing an emergency fund, are you serious? For some, having any cash left over from paycheck to paycheck is a tall order.

You can break out of the paycheck to paycheck whole, pay off debt and actually start setting aside money. The key is to start tracking your spending, develop a budget, and setting goals.

Unfortunately people get bogged down in short-term needs and then get caught short when the big expenses hit. If you haven’t taken the time to determine your goals, it’s hard to be motivated to watch your current spending.

Track your spending and watch your expenses

The first step toward breaking out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle is to track your spending on a daily basis. Make sure you keep track down to that muffin you had at breakfast. Carry a notebook or a pda with you for a month to write down everything you spend money on. The list needs to be very detailed. Don’t guess how much you are spending actually write down everything you spend money on.

Keeping track of your expenses will be an eye opening experience. You will be surprised to find you spent $50 a week on breakfast, or $100 a week on happy hour. This exercise can be time consuming and frustrating, but you need to know how you’re spending your money before you develop a spending plan. Enter all of your expenses an income into an excel spreadsheet to see how you are doing and where the money is going.

Look for out of the ordinary expenses such as utilities, gasoline, food and recreation. High fees on checking, savings and retirement accounts can eat away at your earnings. High interest rates on credit cards and loans can force you to pay more than you have to over time.

Set short and long term goals

Once you know how much you’re spending each month and on what, you can set achievable goals, such as paying off debt, saving for a house or building an emergency fund, and create a budget. If you don’t establish goals, you won’t be motivated to change your spending habits. Achieving goals shouldn’t require you to make drastic life changes or cut out all the things that make life fun. Make your goals attainable and something you can get excited about (like retiring in a certain amount of time), and celebrate your progress with some short term inexpensive goals also.

When establishing goals, be sure to differentiate between wants and needs. Short-term needs, like buying a new car to replace one that’s toast or paying for a necessary medical procedure, are top priority. Long term needs, such as retirement funds, are secondary goals. A vacation to the Bahamas, falls to the bottom of the wants not needs list.

If you’re married or have a significant other, make sure you set and prioritize your goals together. Each of you should write some goals and compare lists to see which you agree on and how to prioritize them. You need to know what direction you want your financial lives to take before setting a budget to get there.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average American family of four spends $8,513 per year on groceries — that’s $709 per month! And many of us blow our budgets further on restaurant meals.

Here are some ideas on saving money on food from Kiplinger’s Magazine

LEARN TO COOK
Eating out is a huge budget buster. Even seemingly inexpensive fast food can add up quickly. Cooking your own meals could save you a small fortune on restaurants and groceries.

TAKE FEWER TRIPS TO THE GROCERY STORE
Making bigger shopping trips less often will cut down on your impulse buys. In fact, almost half of all shoppers go to the store three or four times per week. Shoppers making a “quick trip” to the store usually purchase 54% more than they planned, according to a study published by the Marketing Science Institute.

BREAK YOUR RESTAURANT ROUTINE
This may seem obvious, but we are creatures of habit and convenience. Make an effort to cut back a little, such as dining out once a week instead of three nights a week. With $20 meals, this simple act will trim your expenses by $160 a month.

The US Postal Service created a stamp called the Forever stamp on April of 2007.

This Forever stamp is locked in at the price of the first-class stamp.

This Forever first-class stamp is free from rate increases. They are good indefinitely.

Stamps will go up in price on May 12th, 2008.

You can buy Forever Stamps in between now and May 12th, 2008 and still pay 41 cents each.

The Post office says it will have 5 billion stamps available for the increased demand between now and May 12th.

Stamps can be ordered online at usps.com or by calling 1-800-stamp-24.

Excerpt from the article:

The effort, he says, was inspired after reading “Nickel and Dimed,” in which author Barbara Ehrenreich takes on a series of low-paying jobs. Unlike Ms. Ehrenreich, who chronicled the difficulty of advancing beyond the ranks of the working poor, Shepard found he was able to successfully climb out of his self-imposed poverty.

Excerpt from the Article:

Alone on a dark gritty street, Adam Shepard searched for a homeless shelter. He had a gym bag, $25, and little else. A former college athlete with a bachelor’s degree, Mr. Shepard had left a comfortable life with supportive parents in Raleigh, N.C. Now he was an outsider on the wrong side of the tracks in Charles­ton, S.C.

But Shepard’s descent into poverty in the summer of 2006 was no accident. Shortly after graduating from Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., he intentionally left his parents’ home to test the vivacity of the American Dream. His goal: to have a furnished apartment, a car, and $2,500 in savings within a year.

To make his quest even more challenging, he decided not to use any of his previous contacts or mention his education.

During his first 70 days in Charleston, Shepard lived in a shelter and received food stamps. He also made new friends, finding work as a day laborer, which led to a steady job with a moving company.

See the Full Article here

Adam Shephard did have a credit care in his back pocket in case of emergencies which most if not all homeless people don’t have. This is a good example of what can be done to overcome adversity. What do you think?

CNNMoney has some good Financial tips for couples:

1: Get your own credit history

2: Consider disability insurance

3: Combine the best 401(k) features

4: Streamline your savings

I think that getting your own credit history is a great idea. My wife just purchased a car and she used her credit to get the car which will in turn help her to increase her credit score by making the payments on time.

Disability insurance is a great idea especially if you have health problems. According to an industry group, the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, about one in five Americans will become disabled for one year or more before the age of 65.

As far as combining the best of your 401 features this is a good idea. Make sure that the asset mix of all of your investments make the best sense for both of your investment styles and age group.

Not sure that combining your bank accounts is a good idea. If a divorce occurs assets are still community property in most states, but it makes it a real hassle if one person shuts down the accounts without your knowledge. This will cut down on paperwork and possibly fees, I am just not sure it is right for me.

Checkout the full article here.

So, your ready to start investing. You have your high interest debts paid down (or off) and you have your emergency fund setup that can pay for 3-6 months worth of expenses.

Dollar-cost averaging is a simple concept. You invest fixed dollar amounts on a fixed time schedule regardless of price into an investment.

An example of how it is done:

Let’s say that you set aside $100 per month to invest. The market goes up and down all the time, that $100 will buy less shares when the price is high and more shares when the price is low. Using the dollar cost averaging strategy, you’ll invest that $100 regardless of what the price is so you don’t have to keep up with all the daily fluctuations of the stock market. Your investing plan will be on autopilot and will do that for you. At the end of a year, you will have purchased more shares at the lower price and fewer shares at higher prices.

The alternative plan is to have a lump sum and invest it all at the same time. By doing this you don’t get the advantages cost averaging.

No one can predict what the stock market will do. If the stock market declines throughout the year then you will end up with more shares, but they will be worth less. If the stock market goes up then you will end up with fewer shares, but they will be worth more.

Most experts recommend that if you have a lump sum to invest it as soon as possible to take advantage of the potential returns. This assumes that you have a lump sum to invest.

Dollar cost averaging will allow you to get into the market in a small way without getting killed by an extreme downturn in the market.

If you have a lump sum to invest then you can compare the two plans, but for the average person the dollar cost averaging method allows you to take advantage of a strategy that will hopefully net you great returns over the long run.

When you need your money short term, think in terms of a money market. You can make some interest and still have access to your money when you need to. These types of accounts are great for emergency funds.

Checkout the rates in your area:

Bankrate

Checkout this blog for rate information:

Daily Banker

I currently have a money market and it is slowly paying less and less interest. I started at 4.75% interest and it dropped to 4.410% on January 1st and it reset again on January 22nd to 3.928%. The interest rate reductions are killing my return on investments. It is time to start looking for another account.

You want to retire some day and you would like to have 1 million dollars to do it. Here are some calculations of what it would take at ages 25, 35, 45 and 55 from Kiplingers Magazine.

If you start saving $286 per month at age 25, assuming an 8% average annual return, you will have $1 million by age 65. Having forty years to work with is helpful.

If your 35 and you want to reach one million by age 65 you need to save $671 per month.

If you have no savings at 45, you’ll need to accumulate $1,698 in your portfolio every month to meet this goal. If you have $50,000 set aside for retirement, your monthly contribution will be only $1,298. With $100,000, a 45 year old can likely start retirement with $1 million by saving $861 per month.

If you have no savings at age 55 then it would take $5,466 per month to reach 1 million.

Obviously, reaching this goal is more difficult the later you start. Why wait that long start as soon as you can.

See Kiplingers full article here: