Net worth update : Dec. 2008 = + $8,348

I track my net worth monthly on NetworthIQ. Between Nov. 2008 and Dec. 2008 I actually had an increase of $8,348. Thats a nice change because for the previous few months my net worth had been dropping every month due to losses in my retirement accounts and real estate values.

The increase for December was mostly due to increases in the stock market reflected in my stock and retirement assets. My real estate is still going down gradually.

Free cereal and MP3 music

Free sample of Barbara's Bakery organic cereal : http://barbarassamples.com/

Free Bruce Springsteen song "Life Itself" MP3 download from Amazon download.

Free Jazz sampler album MP3 download from Amazon.

I found all of these in the Free Stuff forum on the Fatwallet site.

3 nights for 2 in Vegas for $338

I just priced a Vegas vacation for January 20-22 for 2 people including airfare, hotel and rental car at a total cost of $338. The airline is Southwest and the hotel is Four Queens. The rental car is through Payless.

Thats a pretty cheap trip. Of course you'd also have to pay for food, entertainment and transportation when you're there. You can find a lot of cheap food and entertainment in Vegas.

Airfare : 2 tickets on Southwest for $300 total with 50% off sale
I discussed earlier that you can get 50% off on flights to Vegas via Southwest airlines. Airfare rates will vary depending on where you are flying from but I did a few checks and it seems that you can get flights to Vegas from most US cities for around $100-200 range.

Hotel : 3 nights at Four Queens for $11 via Expedia with 'fan50' coupon
Theres also a deal where you can get $50 off 3 night hotel stays from Expedia by using the coupon code 'fan50'. If you search Expedia for a mid week stay in January you can find pretty cheap deals especially for the downtown hotels. One dirt cheap option is at the Four Queens. They have a promotion it seems where the 3rd night is free and if you combine that with the $50 off for 3 nights the rate is as low as $10.96 for 3 nights.

You can shop around and find deals for other hotels on Expedia. Three nights at Circus Circus ran $42.13 or the Sahara was $47.85. These are all supposed to be 3 star level hotels according to Expedia. I'd say they are closer to 2-3 star level. One thing to consider if staying at Vegas in the downtown hotels is that they are farther away from most of the attractions and sites on the popular Vegas strip. So spending a bit more to stay on a strip hotel could be worth the cost especially if you're using taxi's for travel.

Rental Car: 3 days economy car for $27.41 from Payless via travel.yahoo.com

I didn't have any special discounts for rental cars. I don't know if Payless is a good company or not. Enterprise, Alamo, Dollar and Thrifty are all in the $28-34 range so you have a number of reasonably priced options. Rental cars are dirt cheap in Vegas in the winter so this would be the most practical transportation option. By comparison, taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel and back would run at least $20-40.

Total cost: Airfare $300 + Hotel $11 + rental car $27 = $338

Your price may vary depending on exact airfare. But I figure for most cities in continental US you can get a midweek winter trip in Vegas for 2 for around $250-450.

Reference: Fatwallet post on the $11 hotel stay
Photo from Wikipedia

Health Savings Account plan for 2009

The other day I listed my financial goals for 2009. One of the goals was to maximize our Health Savings Account (HSA) contribution for 2009. The maximum contribution that you can make to an HSA in 2009 is $5,950 for a family or $3,000 for a single person.

About my HSA account in general
I have an higher deductible medical insurance plan with an Health Savings Account at work. I chose this plan because my monthly premiums are $0 excluding the HSA contribution. By comparison the standard health insurance would be $3,500 a year or an HMO would run $2,200 a year. The HSA plan I'm on has a $2,400 deductible and $4,200 maximum out of pocket. Since the HSA funds are BEFORE TAX its a great savings. First of all I could fun the plan at $4,200 before tax for an out of pocket cost of about $3,150. This is a few hundred less than the standard health plan. But I only use that money if we max out the medical expenses. If our expenses are low then we save more.


Why maximize the contribution?

First reason to pay into the HSA is to cover any medical costs we have for the year. Our maximum out of pocket costs are $4,200. By maximizing our HSA account for the year we will make sure we have all our medical bills covered 100%.

The contributions to the HSA are pre-tax. Generally my tax rate is around 25% off the top of my income. So for every dollar I put into the HSA thats 25¢ which I avoid in taxes. By investing in the HSA we avoid taxes. Plus this money can grow tax free while its in the savings account.

We are likely to have medical expenses in the future. So we should be able to use this money to cover normal medical costs in future years. As long as we're using the money for a qualified medical expense it can be used completely tax free.

Ultimately even if we never use the money then we could withdraw it after age 65 and only pay income tax on it. In this way it would have the same tax deferred savings benefit of an IRA.



For more on Health Savings Accounts:
Wikipedia page on HSAs.
Dept. of Treasury HSA page.