Mint.com

We've long been fans of using personal finance software because it helps us track our day to day spending and long term investments. We see the tool as an important key to helping us achieve financial independence. For years, we've used Microsoft's Money software. While the software was feature laden, I still had to key in some transactions manually every day as the product did not download transactions automatically all the time. Also, the data lived only on one PC. If I wanted to quickly check our financial situation, I would be out of luck if I wasn't near our computer. So I started looking at web-based personal finance programs and the one that I tried out was Mint.com. It works like this: The user looks for their financial institutions and enter their username and passwords on Mint. Mint then aggregates all this information and presents it in an easy to read format. The best part is that Mint automatically downloads the transactions every day so when you log in, the transactions are there ready to be reviewed. It also tries its best guess in categorizing the transaction (which can be manually overriden by the user, and it can also be split).

Mint also has a robust reporting tool that is fully date and category customizable. Very useful to see which spending categories are out of whack or are underspent. You can also construct a budget and Mint will automatically track your spending and alert you (via email or text) if you have spent more than the amount you alloted for that category. Finally, Mint also has an Investments section that tracks the performance and purchases of your investments.

There are some cons however. The big one is that the user has to be comfortable providing all their usernames and passwords to Mint as it is now all stored in one place and in theory, a hacker now can have access to all of your accounts in a single shot. However, Mint uses Yodlee security, which all the large financial institutions use. Also, having Mint store all the login information is actually useful because now you can see, on one webpage, all the transactions that have posted to your accounts, whether its legit or not. So it's easier to spot fraudulent transactions. Another Mint limitation is the inability to enter manual accounts and transactions. Not all my financial institutions are supported unfortunately, and my local credit union is not on the list. So I have to login to that bank separately. But Mint is adding new financial institutions every day and hopefully my credit union can be included in future updates.

Since Mint and my data resides in the "cloud" now, the single best attribute is now I can access my account from anywhere at anytime. I mostly access it from a laptop or desktop, but I also use Mint's iPhone/iPod Touch app to get a quick snapshot of my accounts when I am on the road.

Overall, Mint is a viable replacement to Microsoft Money and if anything, I've saved so much time not having to enter transactions manually. I am confident in the security of my accounts, and I find anytime/anywhere access of my data extremely convenient. The reporting features are also top notch. Best of all, Mint is free!

What's In Your Wallet? (Update)

In this blog post that I wrote back in September 2006 I wrote what credit cards I had in my wallet at that time. The nature of credit card rewards is that the benefits don't last very long. Case in point: the two credit cards that I featured in the blog post are no longer in our wallets. Instead, this is what we carry now:

• Fidelity Investments 529 Mastercard - 2% cash back on all purchases, deposited directly into a designated Fidelity Investments 529 account.

• Chase Rewards Plus Visa - 5% cash back on gas, groceries, and pharmacies.

• Costco TrueEarnings American Express - 3% cash back on gas and dining out, 2% back on travel, and 1% back at Costco

• Citi Forward Visa - 5% cash back for dining out, entertainment, and most importantly bookstores (and Amazon.com - where any purchase is 5% back!)

• Starwood Preferred Guest American Express - 1 Starpoint for every purchase, double Starpoints for a stay at their hotel properties.

Five credit cards? Seems overkill, right? It's actually simple. For groceries, we use the Chase Visa. For gas, since Costco gas prices are usually 10 cents per gallon less than other stations, we use the Costco Amex. For dining out, movies, and Amazon.com, we use Citi Forward. For Costco purchases, we use the SPG Amex. It's the Swiss Army knife of travel cards. With it:

1. You can “top off” several different frequent flier accounts to get to that coveted reward ticket level.
2. You can convert just a few miles to keep your other miles from expiring.
3. You can get 1.25 miles per dollar spent, 25% more than most other airlines cards.
4. It’s a cheap way to get free nights at decent hotels.
5. You can redeem the starpoints for gift cards at a lot of popular merchants.

We also like to stay at Starwood properties (for our anniversary, we stayed at the US Grant in San Diego) and being a cardmember and an SPG member enabled us to be upgraded to a suite free of charge. To avoid unnecessary hits to our credit scores, I simply called Citibank to convert our old Dividend Platinum to the Forward and American Express to convert our old Delta SkyMiles to the SPG Amex.

Finally, for all other purchases that do not fall in the other categories, we use the 529 Mastercard. I've got it down pat, the problem is that Lediya still gets mixed up with her purchases. At least the worst she can do is get 2% cashback.

Note: Pay off balances in full every month otherwise the interest will wipe out any cashback you may earn.

New Cell Phone and Wireless Carrier

My Verizon Wireless contract was up recently and instead of renewing my contract, I decided to look for better options and cost savings. While browsing Fatwallet, I read about the Sprint SERO (Sprint Exclusive Referral Offer) plan. SERO, which originally started as a plan for Sprint employees and their family and friends, is ultra-discounted and contained many useful features. For $30 per month, the plan includes 500 anytime minutes, free mobile to mobile, free nights and weekends (starting at 7 p.m.), unlimited Internet, and unlimited texting. This is way better than my old Verizon Wireless plan and is $20 less expensive. I especially like the unlimited Internet and unlimited texting, two features that I did not have on my old plan and phone.

Since I will be getting unlimited Internet and texting, I started to look for a phone that can do both. I originally wanted the HTC Mogul for its touchscreen and slide out QWERTY keyboard, but was turned off by its bulk and the low battery life. I also looked at the HTC Touch, but couldn't stomach using the touchscreen to text message. So I settled on the Motorola Q9c, a thin and svelte smartphone running Windows Mobile, has a physical QWERTY keyboard and with excellent battery life. I also liked the fact that it could be endlessly customized with the thousands of applications for the Windows Mobile platform. It also has a built-in GPS chip. The phone cost $149.99 after rebate.

I've been test driving this plan and phone for nearly a month now, and I'm very happy with the results so far. The signal has been pervasive at most places, with at least two bars. On a recent drive to Vegas, the signal was strong in the middle of the I-15. Internet speeds are fast since the phone is running on the EV-DO Rev 0 network, averaging about 600 - 900 kbps. I've already upgraded the phone to Windows Mobile 6.1, loaded 2 GB worth of music onto the 4 GB miniSDHC card, installed applications that provide me real time GPS position and live traffic, watch and save flash videos (Youtube), watch live and recorded TV on my home PC, catch up on all my RSS news feeds, use the phone as a wireless modem for my laptop, keep up to date with my appointments and tasks, and so on. I can browse the Internet anytime and anywhere and also easily send email and text messages using the physical QWERTY keyboard. It also has excellent call clarity and a loud duplex speakerphone.

If you are nearing the end of your cell phone contract, SERO is worth considering with all the perks that come with it. I had a good run with my LG VX8300 and Verizon Wireless, but it got too expensive for the features that I was paying for. For $32 a month including taxes, it's a deal that cannot be beat. The phone is great too!

2008 Nissan Pathfinder SE-V8

After 16 years and 140,000 miles with my trusty 1992 Nissan Pathfinder XE-V6, we finally bought a new car to replace it. Since we've had good history with the Nissan Pathfinder brand, we decided to stay with it and purchase a new 2008 Nissan Pathfinder SE-V8. We wanted another SUV because it suits our lifestyle. We can now take this SUV to the mountains for snowboarding in the winter and camping in the summer. We also like the extra space it affords. Plus, since it's a midsized SUV, it is rather easy to navigate, very similar to our old Pathfinder. It's also much safer with front and side air bags, considering that Lucas rides in this car every day.

We decided to pull the trigger now (even though we didn't really "need" a new car) because of a couple of things: since we were planning to buy a new car this year anyway, why not buy earlier in the year, and also Nissan was offering some pretty attractive cash back incentives this month ($3,750 cash back). So I started my research earlier this month and came up with a target price - $27,500 out the door (including tax, registration fees, and license). In arriving at this target price, I researched current incentives, dealer holdback, advertising fees, and other "hidden" fees and calculated a figure that was "reasonable." Comparing to the MSRP (sticker) of $31,460 plus $2,864 in taxes, registration, and license fees ($34,324), my target price is almost $7,000 under MSRP ($4,000 under invoice). I then went on the Nissan website and obtained contact information for Nissan dealers within a 30 mile radius, and sent an email to their Internet Directors with the make, model, interior and exterior colors (storm gray and graphite cloth), and options of the car that I wanted (double-checking their inventory on the site) and sent them my out-the-door price. I told them that if they can meet my price today, I would buy today. This went on for a couple of days until I received a written confirmation of my offer from Buena Park Nissan. I went there ready to buy unfortunately the salesman started to play some games when he realized that I am not budging on my price, at which point I got up and left. However, since I had a written offer, I went to a dealer who had also had the exact model I wanted and asked them to match it. They did and I went to Superior Nissan of Carson and signed the papers, paid in cash, then drove off with the car. No haggling needed, no extra hassles from their finance department. At the end of the day, the dealer essentially made $200 on the sale. But they gained me as a customer because of their excellent staff service.

Overall we're very happy with the SUV. It's very solid, stable, and spacious. It's rugged, yet refined. It feels like driving a luxury SUV as it comes with all the accoutrements (LCD screen with RearView monitor, iPod controls, MP3 capability, dual zone climate control, privacy glass, etc). The SUV is also very versatile with fold flat third row seats, easy clean cargo area, and 64 different seating configurations. Finally, with the powerful V8 churning out 310 horsepower and 388 lb-ft of torque, power is never an issue (although MPG is a little bit, but since I drive only a couple of miles a day it's not really a big deal). This SUV should accomodate our family for many years and miles to come (hopefully as long as the old Pathfinder did).

Netflix Sign-Up Bonus

We just signed up for Netflix due to a sign-up bonus that FatWallet was offering. The bonus is $28 cash back for new account sign-up (you must sign up for an account at FatWallet first and then click through to Netflix from there). We enrolled in the $8.95 per month plan, which allows for one DVD to be rented out at a time (unlimited). We usually rent movies from a local mom-and-pop store as their DVD rentals are only $1.50 per day, but we got tired of waiting for Planet Earth to be available. We are also taking this opportunity to try out HD-DVD, and I will post later this week on our experience with the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player. Planet Earth should look great on HD-DVD!

Individual Health Insurance

One of the larger costs with having a baby is health insurance coverage. We calculated the numbers across three different scenarios (insurance through my work, insurance through Lediya's work, and individual health insurance) and determined that purchasing an individual health insurance policy is the most cost effective for Lucas.

A popular comparison site for health insurance is eHealthInsurance. I like it because they list a lot of the major insurers like Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and you don't have to give them your name or other personal information before seeing the plan's specifics like monthly premium, deductible, and coinsurance percentage. They do require birth date and zip code. The quotes are usually for those in good health.

We found a Blue Cross plan through a broker that has a deductible of $3,500. It costs us just $78 per month versus the $300+ that we would have had to pay through our workplaces. True, we have to pay out of pocket until we reach the deductible, but we can offset that by claiming the costs against Lediya's healthcare pre-tax Flexible Spending Account (FSA). We look at health insurance as coverage against major catastotrophes, and we can easily afford the high deductibles. I myself have individual health insurance that costs $54 a month, enabling me to pocket most of the $900 monthly allowance that my workplace provides to purchase insurance through a cafeteria plan.

Mid-Year Financial Review

I just performed a mid-year financial review and tune-up, and here are some highlights (YTD return, as of 7/24/07):

• Best performing stock: Apple - up 150% (thanks iPod and iPhone!)
• Worst performing stock: Berkshire Hathaway Class B - down 32%

• Best performing mutual fund: Vanguard Total International Stock Index - up 26%
• Worst performing mutual fund: VantageTrust Milestone 2040 - up 9%

• YTD portfolio return: 15.8%
• Net Worth YTD gain: 17.7%
  

• Credit card cash back redeemed YTD: $617.67

Baby Money Saving Tips

Now that we're almost 4 months into this baby business, we can impart some knowledge on ways to save on baby-associated costs. Every little bit counts!

• Buy the Baby Bargains book to get the best deals on baby gear.

• Sign-up for online baby clubs to obtain manufacturer coupons on baby stuff: MyPampers.com, Huggies Baby Network, Enfamil Family Beginnings, Similac Welcome Addition, etc. We've received $75 worth of coupons from Enfamil and Similac already (although Lucas only breastfeeds), as well as about $30 from Pampers and Huggies. We've also received tons of free diaper and wipe samples, formulas, a couple of diaper bags, etc.

• Scour Sunday coupons for diapers and wipes and stack those coupons with Target coupons that come out about once every couple of months for maximum savings. Our average diaper cost to date is about 10 cents per diaper after using the Sunday coupon, plus the Target coupon and sale prices. Example: mega jumbo packs (88 each) are on sale at Target for 2 for $20. Use the $5 Target coupon and the $1 Sunday coupon to bring the price down to $14. So $14/166 diapers = 8 cents per diaper. Rinse, then repeat.
  

• Costco is also a great source for cheap diapers and wipes, if you don't mind store brand. The Kirkland brand diapers are $29.99 for 234 (13 cents per diaper) and Kirkland brand wipes are $15.99 for 732 (2 cents per wipe).

• Costco also sells sleepers and going-out clothes for cheap. We picked up a couple of Carter's sleepers for $5 each ($4 less than Babies R Us).

• Sign-up for the Babies R Us mailing list - they send you a coupon book once a month that contains savings on diapers, accessories, furniture, etc.

Target Retirement Funds: All In One Investing

If you want to invest in the stock market but feel that you don't have the time and patience to search out specific mutual funds or stocks to invest in, consider target retirement funds. Target retirement mutual funds are getting more and more popular, offering instant diversification into stocks and bonds, as well as automatically shift to a more conservative blend as you near your target retirement date. The great thing about these funds is that it can essentially be left on "autopilot" until retirement.

First, you choose the target date that you would like to retire, then pick the corresponding mutual fund. In our case, we picked the Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 fund (VTIVX). Of course, 2045 is 38 years from now, and we will be both 68 years old then. But the reason we picked that particular year is because we are comfortable with the higher stock allocation of the fund for greater gains (and greater risk).

VTIVX is 71 percent invested in domestic stocks, 19 percent in international stocks, and 10 percent in bonds (all through index funds). It's expense ratio is a paltry 0.20 percent, lowest among its peers, and its inception to date return (2003) is a very decent 14.14 percent. This is a great investment vehicle for a Roth IRA, for example.

3 Easy Ways to Make $100

1. Earn interest on your idle cash.
Open up a high-yield savings account that links up directly with your existing checking account and pumps up that piddly interest rate you're getting now. At 5% APY, with every $2,000 in cash you can make $100 more in interest a year. Banks with local branches like Washington Mutual and Citibank are even in the game. Currently, we are taking advantage of the 6% promotional offer at FNBO Direct.

2. Get cash back whenever you make a purchase.
If you are responsible with credit cards, you should really use a credit card that gives you cash back or other perks when buying everyday purchases like groceries, gas, dining out, and everything else. You can easily get back $100 a year without changing your spending patterns. Last year, we received almost $800 back by charging nearly every purchase. What we currently use:

• Chase Rewards Plus for gas, groceries, and drugstore purchases (5%)
• Costco Amex TrueEarnings for dining out (3%), travel (2%), and purchases at Costco (1%)
• Fidelity 529 College Rewards for everything else (2% into a 529 account)

3. Save on monthly expenses.
With just a simple phone call, you can save at least $100 a year on monthly expenses. Example, I just saved $120 for a year by haggling down my high speed Internet bill, and it took all of three minutes to do. Also, you can drop that landline service and save $25 per month by switching to VoIP phone service (I'm currently looking into this possibility).

Latest Personal Finance Hot Deals

ShareBuilder $90 Costco Cash Card Promotion - Open an account and make 1 trade at ShareBuilder and receive a free $90 Costco cash card if you're an executive member. I took advantage of this and bought $150 worth of Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway. Now I can receive those famed shareholder letters that Warren Buffet sends out. I opened two individual accounts and one joint account.

5% APY Washington Mutual Online Savings Account - WaMu quietly rolled out its new 5% APY online savings account that you can link to an existing checking account. It may not be the very tip-top highest rate, but the convenience may be worth it for current WaMu aaccount holders. I can deposit checks directly into the 5% APY savings account at an ATM, maximizing my interest. Can't do that with an online bank. I can then move money into the checking account instantly online as I need it. WaMu has ATMs all over my area as well so withdrawals are easy too. If you're a current WaMu customer, it takes about 5 minutes to open an account. Combine this with...

Washington Mutual "New" Free Checking Account - We just converted our old free checking with WaMu to this new one. What's notable are the many free perks: No minimum balance or direct deposit requirements, free basic checks for life, no ATM fees on their end, one free overdraft per year, free outgoing wire transfers domestic and foreign, free debit MasterCard with rewards (3% cash back), and free ID theft services.

6% APY FNBO Direct Online Savings Account (until 9/28) - Another online bank, FNBO Direct, has entered the fray. They are offering a 6% APY savings account until 9/28. After that, the interest reverts to a still-high 5.25%. I opened one last week to hold the funds from our 6.01% CD that matured last Monday. The opening process was easy and it took about 1 week to fully fund the account.











Citi Driver's Edge MasterCard - up to 6% back via gift cards, cash towards student loans, or cash for auto expenses. You get 6% back on gas, groceries, and drugstores for the first 12 months. After that, you still get 3% back in those categories. Everything else gets 1%. The rebates must either be redeemed for car-related repairs (tires, oil changes) or via ThankYou points (convertible to gift cards for hundreds of retailers). Plus, you can also get Drive rebates for miles driven, at the rate of 1 mile = $0.01. For commuters, this card is a great deal. I don't yet have this card as my Chase Rewards Plus Visa pays me 5% cash back on gas, groceries, and drugstores (I've already received $100 from them), but when and if that rewards program ends, I will surely switch to this card.

Vanguard Simplifies Low-Balance Fees - If you have an account with Vanguard and agree to to get electronic versions of statements and other documents, all the fees are waived. Previously, there were $10 fees that applied to balances of less than $10,000 to index fund accounts, Roth and regular IRA balances of less than $5,000, and non-retirement accounts with balances of less than $2,500. The waiver is available immediately, so switch now. If you have $100,000 in total balances, you're also fee-free.

Zecco Online Brokerage with Free Trades - They offer 10 free market/limit trades per day with a maximum of 40 free trades per month. You only need a $2,500 deposit to open, but since there are no maintenance requirements you can even take that out if you wanted to. Finally, with no inactivity fees it seems like a great account even for someone who doesn't trade frequently. Some other brokers offer free trades, but none with such a low balance requirement. I haven't opened one up as I do not trade individual stocks anymore, but this is a great option.

Fatwallet.com

One of the websites that I visit daily is Fatwallet.com. I make sure to check out the Hot Deals forum for any great deals and coupons before I do any B&M (brick-and-mortar) or online shopping. I also check out the latest online savings rates and certificate of deposit rates in the Finance forum. Plus, I've received tons of free stuff (like the Caring for Your Baby and Young Child book) just by checking their Free Stuff forum.

Also, I've received cash back from online shopping by first linking through the "stores" section of Fatwallet. For example, I just purchased a new pair of Nike Shox running shoes from Finishline.com. What I did was to first visit Finishline's storefront at Fatwallet, then clicked through to the actual Finishline.com site. Doing this nets Fatwallet a percentage of fees due to the linkage, and the best part is Fatwallet gives back this profit to the shopper - in Finishline's case I received 5% cash back of my purchase price (which Fatwallet accumulates in an account that you can request payment from anytime). Plus, I was able to use a coupon code that I found in the Hot Deals forum. In total, I saved $42 total on that one transaction alone. Can't do that at the mall!

You can also "subscribe" to specific search topics so that Fatwallet will send you an email regarding deals just on those topics. For example, I subscribe to "diapers" so that I am instantly notified of any diaper sales going on.

It's an extremely useful site - I recommend it to anyone who wants to get the best deal when shopping. It's also a very useful personal finance site. It's where I got the idea for my favorite rewards cards, our 6.01% CD, and our 5.25% online savings account. You can also subscribe to the forums via RSS to make finding the deals easier.

Lucas' College Savings

Ever since we found out that Lucas was on his way (about 7 months ago), we've been investing in his education. More specifically, we've been saving in a Fidelity 529 College Investment Plan, run by the State of New Hampshire. Why New Hampshire? Because it has one of the best selection of low-cost Fidelity mutual funds. Also, 529 accounts can be used at any educational institution, not just at New Hampshire. Lucas' plan is invested in an age-based portfolio that automatically allocates its holdings based on age. Right now, since he still has 18+ years to go until college, the plan is invested in a mix of stock index funds (domestic and international). Check out savingforcollege.com for more information about 529 plans.

Why didn't we choose Vanguard, you ask? Although most of our portfolio is with Vanguard, their initial investment requirement is pretty steep for 529 plans ($3,000). Also, our Fidelity Investments 529 College Rewards MasterCard, our primary credit card, is linked to the 529 plan. It re-invests 2% of our total card purchases back into the 529 account (about $150 a quarter, not too shabby).
Finally, all our credit cards and grocery cards are linked to Lucas' account at Upromise. It's a site that saves a percentage of eligible purchases in an education account. So whenever we buy, say Florida's Natural orange juice at Albertson's or Mobil1 synthetic oil at PepBoys, 2% of the purchase price is transferred to the account.

We feel that we've got a head start on Lucas' college savings, and we'll gladly use the power of time and compounding to work to his advantage.

Banana Republic Luxe Card

In my opinion, one of the best store-affiliated credit cards out there is the Banana Republic Luxe card. Luxe cardholders receive a $25 reward each time 500 points is accumulated on their cards. Luxe customers earn one point for every dollar that is charged except during double points week, when the bonus doubles to two points for every dollar spent. This translates to essentially 5% cash back on clothing purchases, which is among the best out there for store-affiliated cards.

Other benefits include free alterations, free online shipping, and use of a “concierge” agent when shopping over the phone. The best part is that the card can also be used at the Gap, Old Navy, and Piperlime and you accumulate points on the same rate as you would at Banana Republic. So our strategy has been to shop at the Gap and Old Navy and cash in the $25 reward at Banana Republic. I just cashed in one last night and got a cashmere V-neck sweater for $20!

Current Investment Portfolio Allocation

Here's our current portfolio allocation per Morningstar X-Ray. This is just an analysis of our investment portfolio (not including cash holdings). Our portfolio is still dominated by the domestic large caps, but the recent run-up of the foreign markets has boosted our allocation there. Also note the meager 5% bond holding - I feel that we can do better with current short term certificate rates than short term bond yields for now.

We're also sticking with passively managed mutual funds from Vanguard. Nothing like a one-stop-shop for easy portfolio consolidation.

Current overall annual expense ratio = 0.27%

Portfolio Doctor

Lediya and I were recently featured in the September 2006 issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's monthly feature The Portfolio Doctor. We had some personal finance questions that we wanted to address (rent vs. buy, stay at home vs. work, retirement allocations, etc), so I decided to e-mail the feature's author to see his take. He selected our situation (among the many e-mails he had received) and put us in touch with a couple of certified financial planners. The planners looked at our finances and our questions and gave us their responses, one of which is reflected in the article.

We attended a photoshoot (the photographer actually took 10 rolls of film to get the "perfect" shot). It was an interesting experience in that we opened up our finances to the world for everyone to see. But my take is that if this article helps others out in their situations then it's worth it. Plus, we got a couple of free consultations with top-notch CFPs.

What's In Your Wallet?

There are many credit card rewards programs out there, from frequent flier miles to gift cards to cash back. Credit card rewards have been good to me - for my honeymoon I used my 100,000 Delta SkyMiles hoard to score two roundtrip economy tickets to Europe, saving us $1,000. I accumulated 90% of those miles using Amex's Delta SkyMiles credit card, over the course of two or three years.

However, even though I was successful at scoring free airline tickets, it wasn't an easy process. I had to deal with blackout dates, limited flights, and crazy itineraries. I finally decided it wasn't worth it so I decided to change my credit card rewards to pure cash back. Many experts agree that getting cash back is probably the best form of credit card rewards.

So what it's in our wallet? Last fiscal year, we used Amex's Blue Cash, which is a tiered rewards card that awards 1% for gas/groceries/drugstore purchases (g/g/d) and 0.5% for everything else for the first $6,500 in spending, 5% g/g/d and 1.5% for everything else beyond $6,500. We used the card for nearly every purchase last year, racking up $24,000 in charges, which netted us nearly $460 in cash back (1.9% average payout). Not bad just for using a credit card (note: you must pay off the balance in full each month or the finance charges will cancel your cash back and defeat the whole purpose).

This year though we switched to Citibank's Dividend Platinum Select, which is not tiered. It awards 5% for g/g/d and 1% for everything else, with rewards capped at $300 per year. I got in on a promotion that bumped up the 1% to 2% for me for three months, so that's what we're using currently. We're also using Costco's Amex card for dining out, which gives back 3%. This fiscal year we've received $140 already in cash back.

My personal finance tip of the day: if you're disciplined about paying your credit card balances in full each month I would suggest to apply for these cash back cards. Might as well get paid back for spending money!

Yodlee MoneyCenter

I've just recently started to use Yodlee MoneyCenter. It is an account aggregation service that keeps track of all of your logins and passwords for different accounts, such as bank accounts, brokerage, 401(k)s, loans, and credit cards. It even keeps up with all your frequent flyer miles and various other points. It can tally up all your assets, subtract all your liablities, and show you your net worth on a daily basis. Try it out, it’s well organized, free, and I use it every day.

For the rightfully paranoid, Yodlee is probably a target for hackers trying to get at all those passwords. But since I log in just about every day to keep track of our many accounts, any sort of unauthorized withdrawal will be noticed immediately. And I figure it’s just as likely that someone will hack into my bank’s website as Yodlee’s, so at least this way I can nip it in the bud. The convenience is just too compelling.

Personal Finance Blogs

I currently subscribe to three personal finance blogs that in my opinion give great advice and tips on saving, investing, and spending. The authors of these blogs track their net worth every month and it's interesting to see how their numbers move from month-to-month that depend largely on their investment and spending decisions.

Check them out:

• www.pfblog.com
• www.mymoneyblog.com
• savvysaver.blogspot.com

Millionaire Calculator

Check out this millionaire calculator from CNNMoney.com. You tell it how much you have, how long you will save and at what rate, and you find out when your nest egg will hit 7 figures.

I plugged our numbers in and Lediya and I will be millionaires in 10 years and 6 months (adjusted for 3% annual inflation). We'll be millionaires at age 40!

The calculator assumes the rate of return at 9%, which is close to the average historical return for a 60% stock and 40% bond portfolio mix.

When will you be a millionaire?

Portfolio Rebalancing

Well, it's that time of year again! Time to rebalance our portfolio. When I rebalance, I follow these tips (from The Wall Street Journal):

1. Lighten up on longtime winners like small stocks, gold shares and real-estate investment trusts.
2. Make sure you have a full weighting of growth stocks, mid caps and international shares -- and don't be too quick to trim your positions if they roar ahead.
3. Save on commission costs and capital-gains taxes by rebalancing with no-load funds inside your retirement account.

Personal Finance

A lesson that was ingrained in me by my parents at an early age was the importance of saving money. I bought my first mutual fund at age 18 and saw it soar in value through college. I also learned the time value of money. The idea that money available at the present time is worth more than the same amount in the future, due to its potential earning capacity. This core principle of finance holds that, provided money can earn interest, any amount of money is worth more the sooner it is received.

I am extremely lucky because Lediya and I believe in the same financial philosophy: save as much as you can as early as you can to take great advantage of the magic of compounding. Compounding, in a nutshell, is basically when interest you have earned on your savings earn interest themselves, thereby increasing your saving's value logarithmically.

Because of our hindsight back in our early twenties, both Lediya and I are in excellent shape for a comfortable retirement.

I just thought I'd share a personal finance book that I read a few years ago. It's called "Get A Financial Life: Personal Finance In Your Twenties and Thirties" by Beth Kobliner. It's a great resource for twenty- and thirty- somethings who need information on a wide variety of topics such as insurance, retirement, investing, home ownership, and taxes. It's a great read.