Just got an e-mail from United Mileage Plus about signing up for Netflix for some extra miles.

You get 2,000 miles just for signing up for Netflix and an extra 2,000 miles if you use your Mileage Plus Visa Card.

Check out http://www.united.com/netflixoffer

I’m already a Netflix subscriber but I’m thinking about signing up for the $4.99 plan just for the miles.

If you want AAdvantage miles, you’ll have to settle for 1,500 miles. Use this link.

For anyone that doesn’t yet have an ING Direct account, you can get a $50 bonus if you open an account by 9/30/07.

Go to: http://www.ingdirect.com/nyt/

Use the NY Times bonus code: NY3

$250 initial deposit required. Usually the bonus is $25 so get while the gettin’ is good.

The downward trend begins folks.

“We are writing to let you know HSBC Direct has adjusted your Online Savings Account interest rate to 4.50% APY*.

This rate remains among America’s highest, at 10× the national savings average**—so you can continue to maximize your savings growth with HSBC Direct, recognized as the “Best Online Savings Account” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.”

My $1.05 at HSBC will now be earning 4.5% instead of the 5.05% it use to earn… bummer.

I just got an e-mail from FNBODirect regarding their new rate starting September 29th after their promotional rate of 6% expires. They’re going to be offering 5.05% APY which is pretty decent. Depending on how much money you have, you can definitely get a better rate elsewhere.

If you have $25,000+, you can get 5.75% at Indymac Bank Internet First Rate Money Market.

If you have $10,000+, but less than $25,000, you’re better off at Countrywide Bank which yields 5.5% for accounts in the $10,000+ range.

People like me who only have $1,500 or so in their savings get to choose from these banks.

iGObanking – the online division of Flushing Bank, $1 minimum, pays 5.30% APY
UFB Direct – Absolute Savings account pays 5.31% APY, $1 minimum
AmTrust Direct E-Money Market – $1 minimum, 5.21%

The more money you have, the more worthwhile it is to move around for the best rate. If you only have a couple hundred dollars in savings, just stick to whichever bank you think is most convenient or works best for you.

From now until Christmas, I’ll donate $25 to Kiva.org for each Zecco account opened using my advertiser link below. The money will also stay in Kiva and be continually recycled until a third world borrower defaults on their loan.

Buy Stocks Online for $0. Trade stocks for free on Zecco.com. The Free Trading Community. www.zecco.com

Anyone ever try to sell furniture or anything on Craigslist lately? My brother and his wife recently tried to sell some furniture and they had a “fun” experience with a bunch of sleazy losers.

My brother’s wife (my sister in law) is about 7 months pregnant so they’re moving out of their one bedroom apartment and decided to unload some furniture on craigslist. They didn’t want to deal with moving the furniture so they listed the bulk of the stuff at really cheap prices from $10-$20. You wouldn’t believe the kind of rift raft that get attracted to cheap furniture. Here are just some examples.

One guy called and asked about the couch that was listed for $20. He asked about public transportation and how many stops it would take to get there from where he lived. My sister in law then asked how he planned to get the couch to his place if he’s taking public transportation. He then asked if we had a van we could use and she replied we don’t. He then asked if we had any friends who had a van he could use. I mean, seriously… what?

Another girl called about the table for $10 and said she lived about 5 blocks away and was wondering if my sister in law could help her carry it. She told her she was 7 months pregnant and was in no condition to help her. The girl then asked if we had any friends that could help her carry it because she didn’t have any. Seriously? You can’t find one guy friend to help you carry the table 5 blocks?

Let’s not even get into the people that show up and are extremely snotty and try to bargain down a $10 item. 3 guys all the way from South Jersey came for the $10 bookcase and tried to bargain it down to $5. They bluffed, threatened to walk and all that nonsense. They eventually took the bookcase.

I mean, if someone is selling a $400 couch for $20, they’re basically giving it away. The issue here is people don’t know how to act. The seller isn’t your friend and asking them if their friends can help you move furniture is just inappropriate. If we were talking about a $400 item here, that would be a little different.

I got paid again yesterday. I’ve never really taken the time to really analyze how much of my paycheck gets withheld for taxes and whatnot. So here’s the breakdown.

Gross Pay $798.22

Federal Income Tax -90.09
$90.09 is roughly 11.29% of my pay. I’m probably overpaying about 1.29% since my marginal tax rate is 10% from the 1st dollar to the 7,550th dollar.

Social Security Tax -49.49
6.2% is my half of the tax. My employer pays the other 6.2%.

Medicare Tax -11.58
1.45% withheld sounds just about right. Same deal as above.

NJ State Income Tax -12.12
I’m being withheld 1.52% here. NJ every dollar of earned income for the bracket $0-$20,000 is taxed at 1.40%.

NJ SUI/SDI Tax -7.39
Just regular state unemployment insurance. 0.93% of my paycheck.

Net Pay $627.55
This is biweekly pay for a part-time job, not for one week’s worth of pay… so don’t think I get paid a lot for my part-timer.

Now that summer’s over and classes are in full swing, I can probably expect paychecks going forward to be smaller until next summer.

After 50 weeks of automatic withdrawals of $30 a week from my checking, my emergency fund account surpasses $1,500!

So I’ve decided that $10,000 is a number at which I’ll be comfortable and then stop the automatic withdrawals for my emergency fund when I hit that number. At this point in my life, $10,000 is a number that make me feel comfortable and that’s what is important. You might read here and there that you should have your emergency funds equal to 6 months of expenses but I feel you should have an amount that ultimately makes you feel secure.

And who knows? You might lose your job and get hit with a large expense that depletes most of your “6 month emergency fund”.

ING Direct dropped its rates to keep in line with the fed rate cuts.

The new rates are as follows:

Electric Orange Balance / Interest Rate / Annual Percentage Yield
$0-$49,999.99 3.45% 3.50%
$50,000.00-$99,999.99 4.79% 4.90%
$100,000.00 or more 4.89% 5.00%

Savings Balance / Interest Rate / Annual Percentage Yield
All deposits 4.218% 4.30%

CD Rates
6 Month 4.90%
9 Month 4.90%
12 Month 4.90%
18 Month 4.75%
24 Month 4.75%
30 Month 4.75%
36 Month 4.75%
48 Month 4.75%
60 Month 4.75%

I’ll still use ING’s electric orange checking regardless of the rate drop as my regular student checking at Wachovia pays 0% interest anyway.