Archive for March, 2009
Grocery Store Gift Cards
A few weeks ago I mentioned a local grocery store that lets you save money on your gas budget by buying your groceries there. This store has just upped the ante a little bit. The gas program is still going on, but they have also added a gift card program. Here’s how it works: If [...]
What is a “risk-free” investment, anyway?
Have you ever heard someone say that an investment was “risk-free?” What does this mean? The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) considers a Treasury bill to be risk-free. A T-bill is a short term investment in the U. S. Government, and since the government has never reneged on its debt, this investment is supposed to [...]
The logic of gift card rebates
In my last post on credit cards, I discussed using them for the rewards and rebates. This brings up an interesting question, which I have often wondered about. Why do rewards cards offer you a choice between, say, a $25 check and a $25 gift card to various stores? Isn’t a $25 check always more [...]
What is the next date in this series?
A few weeks ago, on March 3, everyone was excited about the date being a math problem. 3/3/2009 is the same as 3/3/09 if you ignore the first two digits of the year, and 3*3=9. Pretty cool, huh? But here is a more interesting series: October 3, 1000 February 10, 1024 April 5, 1024 June [...]
Are credit card rebates worth it?
We use our credit card for everything. We have a rewards card that pays us 1% cash back for all purchases, so we pay everything we can with our card just to get the rewards. However, this brings up some important issues that I would like to explore. First, is earning rewards worth carrying a [...]
Saving on gas by buying groceries?
One of our local grocery stores has started a new affiliate program with Sunoco. For every $10 you spend on groceries, you get $.01 per gallon off on your next gas purchase. In addition, they have specials every week that generate larger savings. For example, a gallon of milk saves you $.15 per gallon of [...]
Is Manhattan worth more than $24 in beads?
Yesterday I promised you an amazing example of the power of compound interest. Today, in my first post on investing, I will fulfill that promise. It is important to note that I did not create this example; I believe I first read about in one of John Paulos’ books, but it might have been somewhere [...]
How much is interest on a trillion dollars, anyway?
Yesterday I did some number freaking on the subject of one trillion dollars. Today I want to expand that a little further, to show how truly massive that number is. One of the things we discussed yesterday was that you could have spent $1 million every single day since Jesus was born, and still not [...]
How much is a trillion anyway?
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to lose the awe I first felt when I heard the number “one trillion.” The number has been thrown around so much with the stimulus plan, various bailouts, etc. that it is easy to forget how large that number truly is. Let’s see it written out, just [...]
Mortgage Bailout Math
I’m not sure if mortgages is the right category for this, but I have to put it somewhere, so I’ll put it here. A lot of friends have asked me what I think about the various bailouts, stimulus plans, etc. I agree with many people, that they simply won’t do what they are being touted [...]