A Freezing Friday Round-up

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It's been a cold week here. We had to put a few logs on the fire to keep warm. So with a nice cup of coffee and a list of links to some fantastic blogs, we are staying warm. I hope you are too. Here are a few of my favorite for the week.

Don’t Get Rich Any Slower Than You Have To at Get Rich Slowly

Our Identity Theft Experience at Personal Finance By The Book

Ignite Video: Tips For Buying A New Car at My Money Blog

How to Pay a Tax Bill You Can’t Afford at Consumerism Commentary

MBA CLASS 2011; Risk vs. Reward at Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance

New Year’s Predictions And Why Bernanke Sports A Beard at Living Off Dividends

Scholarships Can Be Found for Almost Anything at Free Money Finance

Why Your Tax Withholding Went Up at Bargaineering

Learning to Live on One Income (By Choice) at Five Cent Nickel

The Difference Between Metaphor and Action at The Biz of Life

Americans do NOT spend 6 Billion Hours on their Taxes at Free by 50

What is Groupon? at DINKS Finance

The Top 15 Cheapest New Cars of 2011 at 20 Something Finance

5 Lessons Dave Ramsey Taught Me About Healthy Living at Frugal Dad

How to Invest in Vanguard Funds Using ETFs — and Save Money While You’re at It at Invest It wisely

Financial Fast: Week One at Canadian Finance Blog


Carnivals I have participated in:

Carnival of Wealth #20 – Jan 9 2010 Edition

Festival of Frugality – Craigslist Edition

My Twitter Newspaper

The finance-is-personal Daily

Related articles

• Buy a Car the Same Way You Buy an HDTV for Big Savings [Personal Finance] (lifehacker.com)
• Save Money by Paying Upfront Instead of Over Time [Personal Finance] (lifehacker.com)
• Calculate the Monthly Cost of Your Debt - Then Get Rid of It [Personal Finance] (lifehacker.com)
• Make More Money: How to Supercharge Your Income (getrichslowly.org)
• Conduct a Financial Fire Drill to Assess Financial Health [Personal Finance] (lifehacker.com)

Why UPS Trucks Never Turn Left

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Efficiency is the bread and butter of UPS. Deliver the package on time while saving time, space and money. At UPS, computer sorted packages are marked with a proprietary bar-code. Computers design optimal routes and state of the art package facilities guide your deliveries with computer precision. But with all the billions spent on these systems, the biggest secret to their success is don't make left turns.

UPS plots it's delivery route to make as many right turns as possible. Where half the turns are left ones, they avoid turning left. And how much of the time are UPS trucks turning right? Tasha Hovland, an industrial engineering manager, said, "A guesstimate, I would probably say 90 percent. I mean we really, really we hate left turns at UPS."

Efficiency is so much a part of UPS that it should be called "United Efficient Parcel Service". So much, even the trucks are parked 5 inches apart in the dispatch center. 

Making right turns is nothing new, it was the norm way back before anyone can remember. Managers would go out on the trucks and drive the routes, plotting on map how the right turns could be more efficient. 

UPS trucks drive 2.5 billion miles every year. With its package flow technology and right turns they saved 28,541,472 million miles and 3 million gallons of fuel last year. The company puts almost 92,000 trucks on the road every day. But without its efficiency and right-turn routes, it would have to send out an additional 1,100 trucks.

This is why you never here of a recession with companies like UPS. Constant innovation and increased efficiency keeps companies vibrant. 

I think I will try this right turn only stuff when I go to work tomorrow.

Related articles

• UPS Infographic of the Day: The Evolution of the UPS Truck (gabrielcatalano.com)
• For Holiday Deliveries, UPS Calls On 37,500 Extras (online.wsj.com)

How Do You Stick Your Nose into Someone Else's Money?

We have all been there, seeing a good friend or acquaintance continually struggling with money. Why is it so difficult to talk to them about it. Most of us usually don't go around doling out financial advice. People take it as an insult to be lectured on money. But because I write about it, it's in the forefront for me. I don't make it a habit to to offer my opinion on money. I have found out it usually a waste of time because the advice falls on deaf ears. 

There have been times I have mentioned the work of Dave Ramsey, because he is in the main stream media. He can be seen on Good Morning America and other network programs. Most everyone has seen him so it's a good lead in to start the conversation.

I have found talking to someone about money is as hard as talking to someone about God and religion. It's an extremely personal and private thing. You can't tell some one they are doing their money wrong, it's embarrassing. It's easier talking to a stranger about money than someone your close to.

Related Post: Do You Have Financial Etiquette?

An alternative to beating them on the head with a Dave Ramsey book is to find out why the person is behaving the way they are. Only by understanding how the other person thinks can you help the person find the right path. With that in mind why not say "I see your upset. How can I most help you?" With that statement you are letting your friend know you are worried  about them and how they are handling this rough patch they are going through.

It's tough enough to talk to a friend about bad money behavior, what if your spouse needs some help. Here we have an even more delicate situation. If your spouse is aware of their money problems and you can't just seem to knock some sense into them, here's something to try. Talk to your spouse about going down to see a financial planner. Here the dirty work is off of you and your spouse will probably listen to a third party. If there is something special you want the financial planner to emphasize, stack the deck, call ahead and mention the troubling item you want to cover. 

How would a friend take it that you want to set up a financial planner for them. We your friend see it as real concern or complete arrogance on your part.

If any financial planners are reading this, please tell me how you can help in this situation.

Related articles

• ARA: Do you use a financial planner? (timesunion.com)
• Important Questions to Ask Your Financial Planner (cash-bandit.com)
• Dave Ramsey: Deceiving wife about money not smart (knoxnews.com)

Best Buy Wants to Buy Back Your Old Gadgets

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Electronic retailer Best Buy wants your old electronics. As long as you bought them from them. Starting last week the program is aimed at consumers that love to get the latest new electronic gadgets. By paying up to $59.99 when purchasing the new device, Best Buy will buy back the gadget for up to 2 years. But remember your not getting back full price, just a percentage of full price depending on how old the unit is.

It seems like technology changes every six months. The newest phone or gadgets can change many times per year. That's where Best Buy comes in. Here's how it works. If you bring back your device within 6 months Best Buy will give you 50 % of the purchase price. If the gadget is 6 to 12 months old then you will get 40% back. If it's 12 to 18 months old then you will receive 30% back and if it is 18 to 24 months old you get 10% back.

The Best Buy Back Program is said to include phones, computers, laptops, netbooks, tablets and most TVs.

For those that frequently upgrade this is good news. If you don't have time to resell your items when you upgrade, then this is for you. But maybe it would be better to sell your electronics on Ebay or Craigslist.

From practical standpoint are you really going to trade your phone or TV in after 6 months. Why would you? After laying down $600 for the latest laptop, would you bring it back to Best Buy in 6 months and receive $300 back. To buy another $600 laptop. You know the money back you are getting will probably be in Best Buy gift cards and not cash. Don't forget the $59.99 charge for this service.

What if it were a year later you brought back your laptop. Then you would receive $240 for that 1 year old laptop. I believe you could get more for it on Ebay or craigslist. What if you bought a Ipad and at the end of 2 years they would give you back $50 dollars. I think you could sell it for more than that.

Best Buy had to come up with something new to keep in the forefront of being the largest brick and mortar electronic retailer. They state they will have a huge presence on the forth coming Super Bowl TV advertising. With all the online competition, they must be struggling. They could be following in the footsteps of Circuit City. But for the compulsive gadget buyer this could make sense.

Related articles

• Best Buy To Offer Buy Back Program - Will It Work? (lockergnome.com)
• Xmas Cleanup: Where to Recycle Your Old Gadgets (gigaom.com)
• Best Buy's Buy Back Bonanza (technologizer.com)
• Ecosquid Is Like Expedia For Gadget Selling, Recycling [Gadget Recycling] (gizmodo.com)

Should Couples Have Separate or Joint Accounts; Revisited

Back in Sept. I wrote a post concerning my views on a couple having separate or joint financial accounts. I stated that is what my wife and I had done and why. I always felt a little guilty that we were doing that. I was brought up that, for better or worse you combined your finances. All my friends and family have combined accounts, I am the only one with separate finances. 

I was reading a post over at GetRichSlowly.com and read how top-notch blogger J.D. Roth has his finances separate form his wifes. I thought if it makes sense to him why am I so concerned. 

Without all the cultural pressure of combining accounts and considering the relational pluses of having separate accounts, it makes sense in my life to have them separate. If you are someone who follows the work of Dave Ramsey, you know he says separate accounts are wrong. His reason for this is that if your keeping your account separate then your short circuiting a big part of the relationship. Having combined accounts gives you more ways to plan your lives together and foster more communication, resulting in a closer relationship.

For me in my first marriage, we combined are accounts. We were both in our early 20's, didn't have anything to lose, and we were fresh faced kids starting out in life. Little did we know someday all of it would be over. Fast forward to second wife. With remarriage, both parties already had established lives financially. Already established bank accounts, investments, and habits that were well entrenched. At that point combining financial styles and habits would be hard. 

The choice of having separate accounts, over a decade, has convinced me it was the right move. Having things separate reaps benefits everyday in the avoidance of disagreements. We both have strong opinions when it comes to finances. Also being a combined family, with children from previous marriages, it's only another reason we are doing the right thing.

If you are at the point where you must consider having your finances combined or separate, here's a list of things to think about.

The arguments for combining finances are:

• If there is only one income, it doesn't make sense to have anything separate
• One person is financially inept at handling money. Combining money would only be the practical thing to do.
• You believe that joint finances are easier and economically make sense
• It's morally wrong to keep them separate and it shows a distrust of your spouse.

The arguments against combining finances are:

• You believe that with all the best intentions marriages fail, so whats  the point.
• You both make the same amount of money. Then it's OK.
• Your family has a tradition of separate finances.
• It keeps the level of money fights to a minimum.

I can say I love my wife and I would trust her with everything I have. But I think keeping our finances separate has removed a point of contention and helped our marriage grow. Again it comes down to what's comfortable and right for you. When I want to give good advice to someone I think what would I tell my own children in the same situation. I would say be honest with your spouse and be honest with yourself in your feelings about money. 

Related articles

• Combining Money with My Honey (weddingbee.com)
• Together, but with separate bank accounts (theglobeandmail.com)
• Money, Money, Money: His & Hers? (weddingbee.com)
• Five Money Matters for Newly-Weds (online.wsj.com)

Best of the Best Weekend Round-Up

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The first week of the new year is now behind us. Getting back to the normal non-holiday work week and it feels great. The new year got off to a good start. I  hope yours did to. Here are a few of my picks for the best of the weeks posts.

What Does a Trillion Dollars Look Like? at The Biz of Life

Old Habits for a New Year at Get Rich Slowly


The Myth of Ownership at Consumerism Commentary

An Example of How to Retire Early at Free Money Finance

The Power of Passive Investing by Richard Ferri at Bargaineering

Financial Tips for Couples in 2011 at Five Cent Nickel

$5 Gas is Coming... Eventually.... at Free by 50

It’s Friday…And Time for a Book Giveaway!  at DINKS Finance

Get it On. Child Tax Credit Extended through 2012 at 20 Something Finance

The Big Fat Guide to Kicking Debt’s A** at Money Under 30

Why I’m Happy with a $500 Car Repair Bill at Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance

Online Banking: Depositing A Check From Home at MoneyCone

The Importance of Sleep for Wealth Creation at Squirrelers

Can Rich People Get to Heaven? at Personal Finance By The Book

Financial Resolutions at Canadian Finance Blog

I was mentioned this week at:

DINKS Finance

Personal Finance By The Book

Blog Carnivals I participated in:

Baby Boomers Blog Carnival Seventy-third Edition

Carnival of Financial Planning - Edition #169 

Carnival of Money Stories

Carnival of Wealth #19 – The New Year Edition

Festival of Frugality: Cheapest Man Alive Edition

I could of mention at least 25 more posts that were so well done and informative this week. The quality of articles in the personal finance blogosphere were outstanding. Must be all that holiday cheer washing of in to the new year.

Related articles

• Tax Carnival #78: Happy Tax New Year! (dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com)
• The Best of Get Rich Slowly (2010 Edition) (getrichslowly.org)
• Homeschooled Kids Blog Carnival # 17 (blogging2learn.wordpress.com)