I don’t post much these days regardless of whether I’m on hiatus or not. However I am in southeast Asia and unless something really interesting comes up there won’t be any posts for the next 3 weeks.
Archive for June, 2008
On vacation.
June 17th, 2008Retail Hack – Checking out at the Target Pharmacy
June 10th, 2008One of my friends who works at one of Target’s pharmacies informed me that when people go up to the pharmacy counter with general merchandise and ask if they can check them out they aren’t allowed to refuse them.
So if the regular checkout counters is jam packed and the pharmacy counter is still open. Skip the line!
Why I plan on funding $4,000+ worth of loans on Kiva.
June 9th, 2008As many of my regulars know I’m a big fan of Kiva.org. Ending world poverty is a near impossible task but it isn’t hard to loan capital to those that wish to lift themselves out of poverty.
So why am I funding $4,000+ worth of loans? Simply put, it’s all the money I have excluding my portfolio or emergency fund. This is money sitting in my checking account that’s been funding my partying and misc other activities. So the real question is why all my money?
I need to know that feeling again. How it feels to be broke. How it feels to have no girlfriend and no money. How it feels like to be “hungry and foolish” again. I’m going back to start.
Hopefully it’ll motivate me like it has in the past to find ways to make more money. Instead of sticking all my money in a CD or something I figure locking it up in Kiva loans would be a more charitable thing to do also. I’ll accept the 2.2% default risk for the greater good to help others lift themselves out of poverty.
So far I have contributed $1,175 in helping fund loans. Every couple of days I’ll look for loans and causes I like and fund more loans until I reach $4,000 or so.
An interesting short read
June 3rd, 2008I came accross this piece titled “My Name is Dennis Gartman and I’m a trader…” on InvestorVillage. It’s an interesting short read.
PayPal Tip
June 2nd, 2008If you use PayPal frequently for purchases you might notice that sometimes PayPal refuses to give you the option to charge a purchase to your credit card if you have a sufficient PayPal balance to cover it. The reasoning is basically they profit more by not having to pay credit card processing fees.
So why do you want to charge something to your credit card instead of using your available PP balance? It’s the credit card rewards of course.
The easiest way around this is to withdraw all your money to your bank account. However for some people like me who sell on eBay and ship via UPS I always need funds in my account since UPS now only gives you the option of paying from your PayPal balance.
The tip to temporarily make your PayPal balance unavailable is simple and easy. Send all money is in your available balance to an e-mail address you control that is NOT registered with PayPal. Then when you are done making whatever purchases just simply cancel the payment all the money re-appears back in your PayPal account.
