Getting Another Credit Card Didn't Hurt my Credit Score

Earlier this week I wrote about my latest credit score report.   My credit score was 779.     Before that it was 776 and before that it was 773.   You might notice a pattern.    Then this past week FreeMoneyFinance (one of my favorite personal finance blogs) wrote How Getting a New Credit Card Impacts Your Credit Score

It occurred to me that during that time we applied for and got a Sears credit card while buying a new dishwasher.

Here is the timeline of my credit score checks and getting that Sears card.
Dec 2009 = credit score 773
May 2010 = apply for Sears credit card
July 2010 = credit score 776
July 2011 = credit score 779

It would seem that getting that Sears card didn't have much impact on my credit score at all.    You can see that before I got the Sears card my credit score was 773 and then after I got the card it had gone up to 776.     Its possible that the card application had a negative short term impact but if so then it didn't last.    I would expect though that if there was a large impact to the credit score that it would have lingered longer or had more impact in general.  

I should point out that this isn't super scientific.   Ideally I would have wanted to check the credit score the week before I applied for the credit card and then checked it again the week after and then monitored it for a while longer.

Best of Blog Posts for week of July 8th

FreeMoneyFinance covers How Getting a New Credit Card Impacts Your Credit Score

Bargaineering talks about Money Leaks: Vending Machine Snacks

DoughRoller gives us an American Express Prepaid Credit Card Review

Specific Maturity Date Bond Funds

Earlier this year a new style of bond funds was introduced by some of the investment companies.   I read about these in a recent CNN Money article.  The funds are specific maturity date bond funds.   Each such fund holds only bonds that mature in a specific date.   For example a 2012 funds would consist entirely of funds that mature in 2012.  This kind of fund is compelling to me for a few reasons.  

First of all it beats buying individual bonds because with such a fund you will be diversified across multiple bonds rather than having all your eggs in one basket.   You could of course buy a bunch of individual bonds and diversify your holds that way, but this kind of fund does all that for you. 

The second big benefit of a specific maturity date funds is that it will retain the principal of the bonds.   THe way normal bond funds are setup the funds trade bonds in and out in a regular cycle.   One downside with that is that if you want to cash in the fund at a given time then the trading value of the fund as a whole may be negative due to market conditions.   With the specific maturity date fund on the other hand the funds don't trade the bonds in and out, they hold the set of bonds until the maturity date and then liquidate them all at maturity.   In the given year of maturity the funds will be returned to the investors in the form of cash.  However the specific maturity date funds aren't immune from fluctuations in value either.   If you buy a 2017 fund then it could go up or down from now till 2017.   If you do hold the fund till 2017 and then they liquidate you should get your principal value back however.  

There are at least a couple investment houses offering this kind of bond fund so far.

Guggenheim has a set of BulletShare corporate bond ETFs for 2011 to 2017 (BSCB through BSCH).   They also have a set of High Yield Corporate Bond ETFs for 2012 (BSJC) to 2015 (BSJF).    Summary of the Guggenheim BulletShares ETFs.

iShares has AMT-free Municipal series ETFs for 2012 (MUAA) to 2017 (MUAF).

One way to invest in these funds would be to ladder a sum across multiple years.   Say you had $10,000 to invest, instead of putting it all into one fund you could put $2,000 into each year from 2012 to 2016.

I like the idea of maturity specific bond funds.   They offer the safety of diversification and should retain the principal values.   However they are relatively new and not very tested yet.  Hopefully they will work out well.

Jobs for High School Grads

In general I think that a good college education is the best route to getting a good job.   But college isn't for everyone.   What if for one reason or another you don't go to college, then what kind of jobs should you pursue?

Here is a list of what I'd consider to be decent jobs / careers for individuals with high school diplomas but without college degrees (in no particular order):

Electrician, plumber, carpenter, etc.
Elevator installer, repairer
Waiter/ waitress
cook/chef
Military
Truck drivers, UPS driver, taxi drivers, etc.
Railroad workers
Casino dealer
Postal workers
Flight attendant
Real Estate agent
Auto mechanic, auto body repair
Salesperson
Policeman
Firefighter
Meter reader
Locksmith
Insurance claim clerk
Business owner

See the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook for details on wages and employment outlook for these and other jobs.

Jobs on this list may start out with relatively low pay, but all should offer the chance to make an OK wage at least after you have some experience. In any of the fields listed you can also potentially work up to a manager or supervisor role and then earn even higher wages.  

In some cases a few of these jobs might require some college at least in some areas.  For example police and firefighters sometimes require some college.    Certain jobs on the list may require apprenticeship training which may include some community college courses like Electrician for example.   Some of the jobs may be competitive and hard to get.   Jobs like waiter, casino dealer, salesperson and realtor would all have variable wages that are based on tips or commissions.   You could make very little money or pretty good wages depending on how much tips or commissions you get.

I have business owner on the list.  Of course starting your own business doesn't require a college degree but being a business owner isn't suited for everyone and generally requires some start up funding.  Still there is a lot of opportunity in owning your own business.