July 22, 2016

Best of Blogs for Week of July 22nd

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

MyMoneyBlog has some charts showing US Stock Ownership in Taxable vs. Tax-Deferred Retirement Accounts

The Simple Dollar says I Sat Through a High-Pressure Timeshare Sales Pitch (and It Wasn’t the Nightmare I Expected)    Its kind of a cheapskate way to get a free vacation, but you've got to have the will power to resist a high pressure sales pitch.

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Shoebuy and Ebates : 12% cashback, 20% discount, Free Shipping PLUS Possible $5 cashback

One of the special deals I have in Ebates right now is for $5 cash back on Shoebuy with no minimum purchase.     These deals are YMMV so you may or may not see that deal.  

They also have 12% cashback and a coupon for 20% off with free shipping.   Thats about 30% discount combined.  

If you combine them all on a $50 item it comes out to about 40% net discount with free shipping.

Shoebuy prices may not be very competitive normally but you might find some good sale items or bargains.   I see some Pendelton t-shirts on sale for $15 which would be about $9 after discounts.


Standard Ebates blurb: To get cash back from Ebates you need to be signed up with Ebates.  Then simply go to Ebates to get the referral to the store before you do your shopping.  I also get a referral bonus if you use my links to sign up with Ebates.   

--This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.

July 15, 2016

Best of Blogs for Week of July 15th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

The Big Picture shares How “Amexit” sent shockwaves through the financial markets
which is more for amusement than anything

MyMoneyBlog discusses Private College Tuition Discount Rates to Sticker Price Still Rising

The Simple Dollar explains Why You Should Negotiate Your Entry-Level Salary
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July 14, 2016

Kindle eBook + Audible Is Cheaper than Audible

I just signed up for a 3 month free trial of Audible because Amazon gave a $10 credit for doing so.  

I noticed something while browsing the books on Audible.    It seems that if you buy a Kindle ebook and then add the Audible audio book the total cost is cheaper than buying the Audible audio book alone.

For example :

Game of Thrones : A Song of Ice and Fire, book 1 is $41.95 for the Audible book.    The Kindle ebook is $6.99.   You can get the Audible book for $12.99 if you buy the Kindle book first.   So the price for Kindle + Audible is $19.98.      Thats over 50% cheaper than just buying the Audible book.

Red Mars is $8.99 for the Kindle book.    You can get the Audible book for $3.99 after you buy the Kindle book.   Thats $12.98 total.    The price for the Audible book alone is $43.95.  

I looked at a few books and this seems to be the case generally.    I did see one book that was very cheap for the Audible at under $4 so that title was cheapest to just buy the Adible, but I expect it was a sale price.

--This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.

July 12, 2016

5% Cashback today + Free Shipping at Walmart


Ebates has 5% cashback today at Walmart.    Walmart also has free shipping with no minimum.

And.. since its Prime Day, they also have some competitive sales deals to day at Walmart.

Ebates also has some other promo cash back deals today.  For example Newegg is 2%, JCPenney is 11%

Standard Ebates blurb: To get cash back from Ebates you need to be signed up with Ebates.  Then simply go to Ebates to get the referral to the store before you do your shopping.  I also get a referral bonus if you use my links to sign up with Ebates.   



--This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.

July 8, 2016

$8 Photo Coffee Mug From Shutterfly via Discover Deals

In Discover card's Discover Deals they have an offer for a free photo coffee mug from Shutterfly.   The mug is free but the basic shipping is not free and costs $7.99.   Still $8 is a good deal for a custom photo coffee mug.

To get the deal you have to have a Discover card then log into your account and look up the Shutterfly deal on Discover Deals..    I'm not 100% sure if everyone gets the same deals so its possible YMMV.

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July 7, 2016

$10 Amazon Credit For Trying Audible - Prime Members Only

Amazon has a $10 credit for signing up for a 3 month free trial of Audible.

Follow this link.


The deal is only available to Prime members.  If you're not a Prime member you can get a free trial.

You're under no obligation to use Audible and can cancel it.    That makes this deal basically a $10 money maker assuming you can use the Amazon credit.


fine print of the deal:
Limited time offer available to eligible Prime members. Offer limited to one per customer and account upon successful start of 3 month free trial. You will receive an e-mail from Amazon that indicates that the dollar amount of the credit has been added to your customer account. Promotional credit expires at 11:59 p.m. (PT) 90 days from day promotional credit is received. Promotional credit only applies to items sold and shipped by Amazon.com

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This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.

July 3, 2016

Changes in Incomes from 1960 to 2014

TheBigPicture shared a link to an article Shifting Incomes for American Jobs from Flowing Data site.
I of course got excited, because I mean who wouldn't get excited?    Flowing Data has created an interactive graphic that shows the distribution of incomes for various general occupational groups for 1960, 1980, 2000 and 2014.    !!!      If you go play around with the graphic and click on the different years you can see circles for each group bounce up and down between the income levels.  

Many occupations gained in incomes over time with more people making higher incomes.    Some occupations mostly stayed the same.  

Unfortunately it looks like the construction industry lost ground overall.   Just looking at the dots in the graphic and doing a manual count it looks to me like the median income dropped from around $35-40k in 1960 to more like $25-30k in 2014.     Overall, then wages in construction were down for most people.     Thats not good.   A handful of people in construction did better but only at the top.     In both 1960 and 2014 about 20% of the trades made over $50k.        However in 1960 nobody made over $75k but by 2014 there are 3 people making that much.  

But as I said, other occupations were either up or flat.    Construction appears to be about the only exception.   Thats good news.   For the most part across the occupations it was the top 20-50% that saw gains and the rest stayed where they were.    

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July 1, 2016

Best of Blogs for Week of July 1st

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

RetireBy40 has a nice list of Early Retirement Blogs for Everyone


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