Monthly Interest for February 2009

Making ends meet on minimum wage, currently at $6.55 per hour is tough. As the numbers for a basic wage, tax and net pay breakdown show, there is not a whole lot left over after the “Tax Man” gets his cut. Just the tax on the wages earned come to just over 22% of gross wages and that’s not including the medical deduction if you’re lucky enough to have an employer who offers it. I distinctly remember working for minimum wage when my wife and I were starting out.

Nothing new or exciting to report this month. The economy continues its death spiral down the toilet driven ever onward by job loss, the housing crisis, the credit crisis for businesses and banks. I hope that President Obama’s economic stimulus plan kicks in soon.

As the month of February draws to a close, it’s time to see how much interest I’ve earned toward my goal of "A Dollar A Day". As the downloaded information below shows, I’ve earned $1.89 this year toward my goal of a dollar a day in interest.


ONLINE SAVINGS: ######### (Acct number hidden)
Bank Balance: $486.93 Available Balance: $486.93
Last Statement: 02/27/2009 Interest Earned Year To Date: $1.89
Information as of: 02/28/09

Date Transaction Description Debit(-) Credit(+)
02/27/2009 INTEREST PAID FROM 01/28/09 THROUGH 02/27/09 $0.95
INCLUSIVE AVERAGE DAILY AVAILABLE BALANCE
$474.68
02/17/2009 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00
02/02/2009 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00

Monthly Interest for January 2009

Making ends meet on minimum wage, currently at $6.55 per hour is tough. As the numbers for a basic wage, tax and net pay breakdown show, there is not a whole lot left over after the “Tax Man” gets his cut. Just the tax on the wages earned come to just over 22% of gross wages and that’s not including the medical deduction if you’re lucky enough to have an employer who offers it. I distinctly remember working for minimum wage when my wife and I were starting out.

This month includes an extra deposit of $30.00 dollars. I earned this money from completing online survey’s from Pinecone Research. Each survey pays $3.00 per completion and I saved the checks up and sent them in all at once. This took roughly 10 weeks and the survey’s can usually be done in 5 to 10 minutes or so.

As the month of January draws to a close, it’s time to see how much interest I’ve earned toward my goal of ‘A Dollar A Day”. As the downloaded information below shows, I’ve earned 94 cents this month toward my goal of a dollar a day in interest.

Unfortunately, with the Federal Reserve reducing the overnight funds rate to 0 to .25%, the banks are reducing the meager interest they’re paying on savings in lock step. This process will take longer than anticipated if I stick to an all savings vehicle. So, I plan to transfer these funds to Scottrade when the amount reaches roughly $700.00 to buy dividend paying stocks to offset the drop in interest rate. More about the stock selection process later as the funds in saving grow closer to $700.00.


ONLINE SAVINGS: ######### (Acct number hidden)
Bank Balance: $457.98 Available Balance: $457.98
Last Statement: 01/27/2009 Interest Earned Year To Date: $0.94
Information as of: 01/28/09

Date Transaction Description Debit(-) Credit(+)
01/27/2009 INTEREST PAID FROM 12/28/08 THROUGH 01/27/09 $0.94
INCLUSIVE AVERAGE DAILY AVAILABLE BALANCE
$414.52
01/26/2009 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $30.00
01/20/2009 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00
01/06/2009 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00

Monthly Interest for December 2008

Making ends meet on minimum wage, currently at $6.55 per hour is tough. As the numbers for a basic wage, tax and net pay breakdown show, there is not a whole lot left over after the “Tax Man” gets his cut. Just the tax on the wages earned come to just over 22% of gross wages and that’s not including the medical deduction if you’re lucky enough to have an employer who offers it. I distinctly remember working for minimum wage when my wife and I were starting out.

As I write this 2009 has rolled in and 2008 has departed. I’m not one to place too much stock into New Years resolutions, mainly because I never keep them. I have promised myself to try to be more physically active without a specific weight goal. According to the medical professionals, I’m about 20 pounds over weight for my height. I told my wife we need to go out and find me some platform shoes. Lol

2008 will be known in my household as the “Year of the Repair”. It seemed like everything I owned needed some kind of expensive repair from lawnmower (3 times) to house (more times than I remember) to car (4 times). My wife and I came home from a Christmas visit to New Hampshire to see my daughter and son-in-law and found part of the ceiling caved in from a steady drip of water from an upstairs shower. ::sigh:: Goodbye 2008.

2008 was an interesting year for me financially as I’m sure it was for most folks. I’m down about 35% in my 401(k) and about 40% in my taxable stock account. I have continued to invest as much as I can in both and I’ve tried to encourage others to do the same. Keep in mind, there is two sides to the portfolio equation, the share price and the number of shares. These two when multiplied together equal the overall value. If the share price is down, take advantage of the situation and add more to the number of shares side. I like to be “paid while I wait”, so a lot of my taxable accounts stocks are dividend payers. My average return from this account is about 5.5%. Not too bad considering the Fed. has dropped interest rates for any kind of savings account right into the toilet. Thanks “Uncle Ben”!

As the month of December draws to a close, it’s time to see how much interest I’ve earned toward my goal of ‘A Dollar A Day”. As the downloaded information below shows, I’ve earned 93 cents this month toward my goal of a dollar a day in interest. Yeah! Only $361.96 left to go.


ONLINE SAVINGS: ######### (Acct number hidden)
Bank Balance: $399.04 Available Balance: $399.04
Last Statement: 12/26/2008 Interest Earned Year To Date: $3.04
Information as of: 12/28/08

Date Transaction Description Debit(-) Credit(+) 12/26/2008 INTEREST PAID FROM 11/28/08 THROUGH 12/27/08 $0.93
INCLUSIVE AVERAGE DAILY AVAILABLE BALANCE
$381.31
12/22/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00
12/10/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00

Monthly Interest for November 2008

Making ends meet on minimum wage, currently at $6.55 per hour is tough. As the numbers for a basic wage, tax and net pay breakdown show, there is not a whole lot left over after the “Tax Man” gets his cut. Just the tax on the wages earned come to just over 22% of gross wages and that’s not including the medical deduction if you’re lucky enough to have an employer who offers it. I distinctly remember working for minimum wage when my wife and I were starting out.

Since, it’s so close to Christmas I’d thought I would jot down a few memories of my gifts from Christmas past, long past. This idea came from a post by Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar (www.thesimpledollar.com) “Christmas Inspiration from a Stick and a Cardboard Box” that he wrote. In the article, Trent included a link to the National Toy Hall of Fame. I found some of my old favorites such as an Atari 2600 Game System (No longer for sale), a bicycle ($99.00), a Cardboard box (Free) (actually two cardboard boxes was my favorite. Find a grassy hill and use one to slide down on the other.), a kite ($4.99), Lionel trains ($69.95), a Monopoly game ($13.99), Tonka Trucks ($24.99). I added prices for items that I could still find for sale. All but two of these toys gave me hours of fun and lasted for years. The cardboard box did need to be traded out for one that wasn’t ripped to shreds and sometimes a kite would get away.

The two cardboard boxes that my neighborhood friends and I played with one Christmas Day was a blast. We slid on those boxes all day long. Remarkably for us, there weren’t any fights over whose turn it was or who had slid the most, the furtherest, etc. I’m sure our parents were a little miffed at the price of the toys that came in those boxes and the fact that we were neglecting them.

The first bicycle that I remember getting for Christmas was when I was 7 years old. My father put it together, but didn’t have a way to inflate the tires in the middle of the night. After he rolled it outside for me, he turned to go back into the house thinking I was following him. I climbed up on it and started to ride around. He shouted at me to get down, "You're going to pop the tires!" Fortunately, I didn’t put a hole in the tubes in the tires and he later inflated them just fine. It didn’t occur to him to ask me where I learned to ride until much later. I think he was a little surprised when I told him I’d never ridden a bike before.

My friends and I spent countless hours playing Monopoly. Sometimes, the games would last all day. Lordy, lordy the number of hours I’ve spent (wasted?) playing that game. I guess taking turns being the banker improved our counting skills.

For a boy of 10, a Lionel train is magic. I’ve loaded up my family and friends on my train and taken them on trips around the world. With stops to eat, sight see and explore, I spent hours traveling to places I couldn’t even spell. Lol

As the month of November draws to a close, it’s time to see how much interest I’ve earned toward my goal of ‘A Dollar A Day”. As the downloaded information below shows, I’ve earned 88 cents this month toward my goal of a dollar a day in interest. Yeah! Only $362.89 left to go.


ONLINE SAVINGS: ######### (Acct number hidden)
Bank Balance: $370.11 Available Balance: $370.11
Last Statement: 11/26/2008 Interest Earned Year To Date: $2.11
Information as of: 11/30/08

Date Transaction Description Debit(-) Credit(+)
11/26/2008 INTEREST PAID FROM 10/28/08 THROUGH 11/27/08 $0.88
INCLUSIVE AVERAGE DAILY AVAILABLE BALANCE
$351.15
11/24/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00
11/10/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00
10/27/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00

Monthly Interest for October 2008

Making ends meet on minimum wage, currently at $6.55 per hour is tough. As the numbers for a basic wage, tax and net pay breakdown show, there is not a whole lot left over after the “Tax Man” gets his cut. Just the tax on the wages earned come to just over 22% of gross wages and that’s not including the medical deduction if you’re lucky enough to have an employer who offers it. I distinctly remember working for minimum wage when my wife and I were starting out.

I contributed an additional $30.00 dollars to this account this month from additional income earned from doing some tree trimming, yard work, etc. I was paid much more than $30.00 dollars for my efforts for a two day time span and I do mean all day. Oh, my aching back! I didn’t want to skew the numbers too far out of line, but felt that I should recognize this additional earned income in some way. $30.00 dollars seemed about right to me.

As the month of October draws to a close, it’s time to see how much interest I’ve earned toward my goal of "A Dollar A Day". As the downloaded information below shows, I’ve earned 75 cents this month toward my goal of a dollar a day in interest. Yeah! Only $363.77 left to go. One thing you’ll notice besides the additional $30.00 dollar deposit is that the September 30th deposit is $15.00 dollars rather than $14.00 dollars. 2008 is a leap year and I needed to account for that in my deposits. I failed to remember this when opening the HSBC Direct account originally, so I made up the missing dollar here.


ONLINE SAVINGS: ######### (Acct number hidden)
Bank Balance: $341.23 Available Balance: $341.23
Last Statement: 10/27/2008 Interest Earned Year To Date: $1.23
Information as of: 10/28/08

Date Transaction Description Debit(-) Credit(+)
10/27/2008 INTEREST PAID FROM 09/28/08 THROUGH 10/27/08 $0.75
INCLUSIVE AVERAGE DAILY AVAILABLE BALANCE
$292.48
10/24/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $30.00
10/14/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00
09/30/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $15.00

The Financial Crisis and You

Making ends meet on minimum wage, currently at $6.55 per hour is tough. As the numbers for a basic wage, tax and net pay breakdown show, there is not a whole lot left over after the “Tax Man” gets his cut. Just the tax on the wages earned come to just over 22% of gross wages and that’s not including the medical deduction if you’re lucky enough to have an employer who offers it. I distinctly remember working for minimum wage when my wife and I were starting out.

The $14 dollar contribution to HSBC Direct ( www.hsbcdirect.com ) for this pay cycle is winging its way there as I write this. I’m currently on track to hit $366 dollars (2008 is a leap year) by my last pay cycle in December 2008. I did get off to a slow start because of HSBC’s silly and annoying sign up process, but that’s all done and now all I need to do is keep up the pace.

I have avoided writing anything about the current economic mess that we find ourselves in … until now. What could and should you do during the current economic crisis?

First off, don’t panic. Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar ( www.thesimpledollar.com ) wrote a great article linked here ( http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/10/02/the-only-thing-we-have-to-fear-is-fear-itself/ ). I recommend giving any financial decision time to age, say 24 hours. If you still feel the same way about a situation or decision after a 24 hour cool down period, then perhaps consider a small change. Don’t make any sudden or drastic changes to your financial plan. Financial decisions made in haste based on emotions will almost always end up biting you in the backside. I speak from experience. It’s a hard lesson to learn.

Secondly, how’s your insurance? No, not your life insurance although that is important. Are you FDIC or NCUA (National Credit Union Association) Share Insurance protected? And to some extent SIPC as well. More on SIPC insurance in a minute. If you are covered by the previously mentioned Federal Insurance programs and you’re within the limits of these programs, you will not lose your money if a financial institution is taken over by the Feds, bought out by a competitor or even shut down. The worst case, a bank shut down, will only mean a delay in access to your money. Now about that SIPC insurance. SIPC, which is the Federal insurance program for investment accounts, does not protect you from loss from fraud, fluctuations in the market or investment losses.

Thirdly, are you diversified? Make sure whatever ratio of stocks, bonds and cash that you have lets you sleep at night. Check your allocations and make sure you’re maintaining your ratios. If you feel the need to boost one category in particular, add more money to that category rather than selling something to rebalance. In these trying times, now is not the time to sell in a panic.

And lastly, do you have a cash cushion? How fluffy is your cash cushion? Do you have three to six months of expenses in a high yield savings account? If not, consider boosting the amount of cash on hand to better weather a sudden job loss or credit freeze.

If all else fails, get help. Liz Pulliam Weston wrote an article linked here (http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/RaiseKids/WhereToTurnWhenYoureDesperate.aspx) about where to turn to if you end up at the end of your rope.

Monthly Interest for September 2008

Making ends meet on minimum wage, currently at $6.55 per hour is tough. As the numbers for a basic wage, tax and net pay breakdown show, there is not a whole lot left over after the “Tax Man” gets his cut. Just the tax on the wages earned come to just over 22% of gross wages and that’s not including the medical deduction if you’re lucky enough to have an employer who offers it. I distinctly remember working for minimum wage when my wife and I were starting out.

As the month of September draws to a close, it’s time to see how much interest I’ve earned toward my goal of "A Dollar A Day". As the downloaded information below shows, I’ve earned 48 cents toward my goal of a dollar a day in interest. Yeah! Only $364.52 left to go. Also as the statement shows, there was a long lag time between opening the account and actually getting access to it to add the rest of the start up deposit.

HSBC Direct’s account opening process is a right pain in the posterior. At one point, I was berating the poor representative because the answer to security questions can’t contain two of the same letters adjoining in the answer. So for example, if the security question is, “What is your father’s middle name?” and your answer is “Larry”. This is an invalid response and the password creation program will flag it as an error. The suggestion from the representative? Make the response “Lary”. So as I see it, HSBC Direct is encouraging you to lie about the answers to their security questions and then remember what lie you told to them.

I did apologize to the poor representative that had to listen to my short rant concerning this, but I still stand by my response. It’s a silly process to encourage your clients to lie about the answers to the security questions and then expect them to remember the lie.


ONLINE SAVINGS: ######### (Acct number hidden)
Bank Balance: $267.48 Available Balance: $267.48
Last Statement: 09/26/2008 Interest Earned Year To Date: $0.48
Information as of: 09/27/08

Date Transaction Description Debit(-) Credit(+)
09/26/2008 INTEREST PAID FROM 08/27/08 THROUGH 09/27/08 $0.48
INCLUSIVE AVERAGE DAILY AVAILABLE BALANCE
$167.34
09/17/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $14.00
09/11/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC ONLINE-TRANSFER $153.00
09/02/2008 DEPOSIT FROM HSBC DIRECT-ACCT FUND $100.00