Be My Valentine: 8 Ways to Say “I Love You” that Cost Little or No Money

Well, it’s almost that time of year again: Valentine’s Day. A day when we’re expected to express our love with extravagant jewelry, fine wine and chocolates, and equally extravagant flower bouquets. Last year, U.S. consumers spent more than $12 billion on gifts for spouses and loved ones. And why wouldn’t we? The commercials (and society) tell us that the amount of our love is equal to the dollar amount of our gift.

But one of the most important aspects of gaining (and maintaining) control of our finances is to step away from societal expectations and do what’s best of our wallets and our financial futures. Though the jewelry, candy and flower stores would have you believe differently, it is entirely possible to say “I love you” in profound, but inexpensive ways. Here are eight suggestions:

Hand-written notes

Instead of spending money to buy a love note written by someone else, take time to write one of your own. Or better yet, tell your loved one that Valentine’s Day marks the beginning of your “One Year of Love Notes” commitment. Instead of waiting


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Great Rate Checking With Bank2

Bank2 is committed to helping their customers. With their free interest checking, it makes you money, not the other way around. You can receive great benefits at no cost to you – no minimum balance or monthly service charges. All it takes is $100 to open this account.

With Bank2’s Great Rate Checking account, you can earn 3.01% APY on balances up to $15,000. Plus, you can be reimbursed for ATM fees. The following need to be done to qualify for the Great Rate and ATM fee refunds:

  • Access online banking
  • Receive free paperless e-Statements
  • Have at least one monthly direct deposit post and clear the account
  • Have at least 12 point-of-sale debit card purchases post and clear the account

Even if you can’t meet the qualifications, Bank2 will reward you with 0.10% APY and if you have a balance over $15,000, expect to earn 0.51% APY. As of May 6, 2009, Bank2 changed the policies on this account. There is a limit of 2 accounts per customer and/or household, plus this offer is limited to Oklahoma residents only. It ca


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Trading in penny stocks can be risky business

Dear Dr. Don, I have been looking for a way to get into investing in penny stocks and the stock market in general. Do you know if there is a class or any online information that could get me on track? I have been looking, but everyone seems to have a program. Do you have suggestions of one that might be credible?

Dear Philip, Let’s call it what it is. It’s not investing; it’s speculating. I’m of the opinion that there’s room in most investors’ portfolios for some speculation, but you don’t start thinking about the speculative part of your portfolio until after you’ve funded an emergency fund and have started to build an investment portfolio. The speculative component in your portfolio should be no more than 5 percent to 15 percent of your overall investment portfolio.

The definition of a penny stock varies by source. Some include stocks trading for less than $5 per share. Others define it as a stock trading at less than $1 per share. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the term “penny stock” generally refers to low-priced (less than $5) speculative securities of very small companies.

Penny stocks generally are quoted on two electronic exchanges — the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board, or OTCBB, or in the Pink Sheets.


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How I Ended Up With A $5000 Dollar Tax Bill This Year. Oops!

This past week I started getting all of my tax forms.  I got my W2 from the company I work for at my day job, 1099s from a variety of companies that I do freelance work for, some miscellaneous tax forms from investments that we have and reporting forms showing how much weve donated to our church and other charities.

Ive been using TurboTax for the past few years, and Ill be using it again this year so I started entering all of my information into their software a couple of nights ago (check out the tax software  I recommend).   Im still waiting on a few 1099 forms, but Ive almost received them all at this point.

After a couple of hours of entering data into the TurboTax interface I was shocked to realize that despite the fact that I had paid 100% of my tax liability from 2010 this past year, I was still going to end up owing quite a bit of money come tax time.  In fact, it looks like Im going to owe about $5000 in combined federal and state taxes.  Wow.

How did I end up in a situation where I owe that much money on my taxes?  It happened for a variety of reasons.

First, when paying my taxes using TurboTax last year it automatically calculated what my estimated tax payments for the coming year should be.   It printed out payment coupons for me for what I should be paying each quarter.   The total of the payments it gave me was equal to 100% of 2010s tax liability.    Knowing that I would be within the safe harbor requirements for 2011 taxes, I think that gave me a false sense of assurance that despite the fact that I was tracking blog income and expenses pretty closely, I wouldnt need to do any re-calculations if my income rose because I wouldnt be subject to any penalties.  I could just pay any small overages when tax time came.

Another factor causing me to owe  more than expected was the fact that my blog income rose more than I expected this year by between $15,000-20,000.  Not only that but I had another one time increase in online income due to an online asset that I sold for around $8000.  So the increase in blog income, along with a one time bump due to selling that property means I made around $25,000 more online this year than last year.    I was expecting


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Redbox & Verizon Joint Venture

Coinstar (CSTR), the parent company of video rental service Redbox, announced a new joint venture with Verizon (VZ) to bring a streaming solution to more devices.

The joint venture will involve both Redbox’s offline distribution service, as well as a new service geared toward other devices through the online streaming business. The companies plan to offer a subscription service that, I’m guessing, will be very similar to Netflix’s current offerings.

Where Redbox and Verizon Meet

Redbox and Verizon have a very interesting partnership potential. Redbox already has the connections to create and sculpt a new streaming video play to take on Netflix.

Here are a number of angles in which this partnership is mutually beneficial:

More bandwith consumption – Verizon’s entrance into the business is likely hinged on the idea that users will consume more mobile bandwith, a very popular and profitable product for the mobile phone company. There’s no way to know how the deal will be structured, however, Verizon could potentially rake millions if not billions of dollars from customer accounts from more web content useage.

TV Takeover – Newer mobile devices offer the ability to stream content from a mobile phone to TV. Using wi-fi,


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