Lau's Personal Finance Blog

I did it..!!

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:22:35 PST

My own Wordpress blog is up and running. You can check it out at:
The Little Blog That Could

I will still post post here about my personal finances, but you'll be able to find more generic or non-PF related post over there.

Let me know how I am doing.

I will be at a school next week

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:22:35 PST

My boss is paying for me to go take a Java course next week. I'm pretty excited about it. Especially knowing that I'll be at Sun's Burlington Campus That's pretty awesome actually. I'll be learning Java where it was invented.

We haven't discussed any raises when I get back...

Flying out on my own - step 1

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:26:43 PST

I have been thinking of creating my own blog for a little while now. My first step is figuring out what I need for a platform. The 2 big names out there are Blogger and Typepad.

Blogger is free, but Typepad charges a monthly or yearly fee.

I have found a bunch of blog entries...

Rant about work!!

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:57:08 PST

I am very angry right now. Here's the deal, we have been in a office for the past year where we all share one room. I don't mind it so much, but we are all craving some kind of privacy. Well, there it is! We are moving tomorrow in permanent spaces. Problem? There are a limited...

My dream of buying an investment property

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 10:03:27 PST

In one of my very first posts titled I'm bored, I was explaining that I wanted to do something meaningful. I still have not come up with a better explanation of what "meaningful" would be, and I have not made real progress in achieving that, but I a working on it.

What I...

Increased my Roth IRA contribution and yearly goal update

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:15:41 PST

My Roth IRA at Vanguard is now worth $ 2,456.51. Up 5.66% since January 19. Not bad.

I've decided to increase the contribution from $50 to $75.

It's not going to make a HUGE difference, but it's still 50% more.

2007 GOAL UPDATE
My goal of putting 10% of our income in a savings...

Computer fund slowly growing

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:18:55 PST

Update on My new computer post.

The HSBC account I opened for it is slowly growing and has $ 121.01 in it. The configuration I want has gone down since last March. I've also had to change a few components as the initial ones were not available anymore.

Previous quote: $ 513.96
New...

Today is volunteer day

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 06:54:00 PST

I'm getting ready to go and volunteer to clean the Esplanade, along the Charles River, in Boston.

I'm part of an association called Boston Cares.

Boston Cares organizes and leads team oriented volunteer opportunities throughout Greater Boston that have a positive impact on individuals and communities

Check...

Life Insurance Quote

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:11:32 PST

One thing that was very overdue since we got the house was to get both me and hubby covered with life insurance.

And because Suze says that no insurance is useful except term life, I requested quotes just for that: Term Life.

Wow! I didn't expect such high premiums.
I asked...

The dog ate my glasses

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:06:50 PST

Oh yeah, he did. Really.

I left him alone downstairs last night for about 5 minutes. When I came down the stairs, my glasses were on the floor. One lens was out of its socket. One branch is completely chewed and bent.

I don't think I can have it fixed. It is was only the...

The dog ate my glasses

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:06:49 PST

Debt repayment plan is written

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 18:36:47 PST

I've computed all the debts we have which includes:
- 4 credits cards
- 1 credit card at 0%
- 1 medical bill
- 1 car loan

The plan is to have all of it, except one credit card paid off on February 2008.

The debt totals $11,447.28. Hmm... not great, but we'll get to it.

The...

What happens to my money for 4 days??

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Thu, 24 May 2007 07:28:26 PST

I opened an HSBC savings account a few months ago. I am scheduling a transfer for this month, and checked last month's transfer to see for what day I should plan it...

Well, well, I didn't notice but, the money was taken out of my account on April 19, only to be credited in the...

So much for the breakthrough!!

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Thu, 17 May 2007 11:33:44 PST

I wrote a few days ago that hubby sat me down, asked me about our bills and debts. I was happy. I thought he got it. Yay!

Today, all of this came down. He got a will kit a few days ago from his work. He couldn't pay for it then, so agreed with his boss that he would when he...

Citi Home Rebate Card?

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Mon, 14 May 2007 09:57:33 PST

I just found out about the Citi Home Rebate Card.

Here are a few features of the card. The first one is the one that intrigues me the most:
1. Rebates applied to your mortgage principal.
2. Don't have a mortgage yet? Good News! You will get statement credit instead to start saving...

Overdue Update

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Sun, 13 May 2007 15:39:49 PST

I haven't been keeping my blog up to date lately. Spring has come and hubby and I have been spending time outside cleaning out the yard, planting a few vegetables. I think we got started a little late, but we'll see. I will post a few pics.

On the financial front. NTD (Nothing...

Manage passwords... don't type them anymore

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Sun, 13 May 2007 14:40:25 PST

I have been using a little program to save and manage my passwords for a few years now. It's called PasswordSafe.
A few things I like about it:

- It generates passwords with upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.
- It is very easy to use
- You don't type passwords...

Want to opt-out?

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:53:30 PST

Cap at StopBuyingCrap.com made a very useful post on Friday.

HOWTO: Protect What�s Left of Your Consumer Privacy.

You'll find links to different institutions' site where you can opt-out of mailing and phone calls if you have an account with them. Check it out...

Bank of America starts charging Maintenance Fee... See ya!

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:24:30 PST

A few month ago, I opened a Bank of America account. I had also seen an article mentioning that BoA would start charging fees on their "free" checking account. Well people, that moment is here.

I deposited $40, got $100 in referral and bonus. When I checked it this morning,...

Lotto Scam... follow up

lleccia@yahoo.com (Lau) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:10:18 PST

This post is a follow up from my previous post on Lotto Scams. After reading the comments, I realized that other people got a similar letter, and even called the number. These are rules of thumbs that you should keep in mind in the event you should receive one of these letters:

#1......