Category: Financial

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VoiceStick Replacement – IPKall with GrandCentral

So VoiceStick, one of my free VoIP service providers decided they were going to start charging money. I was on the Next2Nothing plan where all incoming calls were free, but they would charge 2¢/min for all outgoing calls. I was fine with that since I didn’t plan to make any outgoing calls.

However a month or 2 back, they secretly started charging money without notifying the users. I only found out after Ungsunghero mentioned it to me and realized I had a negative balance. Since I was on the “free” plan, there was no need to provide a credit card and I might have started out with some free credit. When I saw my balance, it was at -$1.32 or something like that.

I’ve mentioned VoiceStick previously, stating how they were better than IPKall both in quality and the fact they can provide local numbers from anywhere in the USA. IPKall restricted your number to be in the Seattle area which was either 425, 206, 360, or 253. My IPKall still works fine and I haven’t had any problems with it, but now I lost a local number for my parents in LA to call me. Worse case scenario, they can still call my cell phone.

Anyway, I was just telling Derek and Tekman a few weeks back about GrandCentral, because Tekman needed a number which wasn’t long distance for his son’s school to call him. I told him about GrandCentral and how it’s basically choose a number and get free call forwarding. GrandCentral has a whole slew of neat features. Call forwarding is just one of the many.

I believe GrandCentral (being in beta) is still an invite-only service, so if you’re interested, feel free to leave your name and email in the comment area.

This got me thinking… Can I get a local number in LA (626 area code) and have it forward to my IPKall phone number. I decided to give it a shot and it turned out quite successful. Initially, I was having some quality trouble, where I had a hard time hearing the other side and vice versa. It turned out it was because I was “uploading”, which caused more deterioration of the VoIP connection than previously with my other VoIP services. Of course the quality isn’t as good as what VoiceStick was before and probably worser now since it’s going through 2 VoIP connections (first through GrandCentral, then through IPKall/FWD), but I asked my parents to give it a try and with my “uploading” software closed, the quality was actually rather good.

Setting up GrandCentral is pretty easy. You provide some information, give it an area code/address and it’ll return you a set of phone numbers to choose from. I wanted one that was easy to remember (basically one with repetitions of digits and found a pretty good one after going through about 30).

Setting up IPKall is a bit more difficult. At this point, I’m going to assume you already have a VoIP Phone Adapter (such as the “unlocked” Linksys PAP2) or you’ll be using a PC-Phone software (somewhat like Skype) provided to you by FWD.

IPKall isn’t exactly a VoIP service. They’re sort of a door that can connect a phone number to an existing VoIP service that allows incoming connections. They recommend FWD (Free World Dialup) as the VoIP service provider. FWD doesn’t provide actual phone numbers, but they allow incoming connections and what IPKall does is to connect an incoming call into that VoIP service. I’d suggest setting up the FWD account before you setup the IPKall account.

Creating an account on FWD is pretty straight forward. What you’ll want to keep note of is what your FWD Number is and the password you set. You’ll need this information to setup your VoIP Phone Adapter. Here are the settings I have on my Linksys PAP2:

SIP Port: 5060
Proxy: fwd.pulver.com
Use Outbound Proxy: No
Register: Yes
User ID: Your FWD Number
Password: Your FWD Password
Use Auth ID: Yes
Auth ID: Your FWD Number

Anything I didn’t mention, I’m assuming it’s the default. After saving, check the registration state and see if it changes to Online. It usually takes less than 5 minutes if the information you enter is correct.

Creating an IPKall account is pretty much like GrandCentral. You give them some information, select the area code you want, then select your phone number. After your account is created, update the following settings:

SIP Phone Number: Your FWD Number
SIP Proxy: fwd.pulver.com

Although it says it may take up to 60 minutes for the changes to take effect, I’ve noticed that creating a new account can take a day before the phone number starts working.

Now go back into GrandCentral and tell it to forward all calls to the IPKall phone number you just setup and everything should work just fine!

If you need help, feel free to leave a comment.

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Trophy Wives Are Depreciating Assets

Thanks to Ungsunghero for sharing this link: Craigslist Meets WallStreet…Classic. Apparently it’s an email that’s been circling the finance circles.

A female seeking male with over $500K annual salary posted:

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I’m tired of beating around the bush. I’m a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I’m articulate and classy.
I’m not from New York . I’m looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don’t think I’m overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 – 250. But that’s where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won’t get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she’s not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?

Here are my questions specifically:

– Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars, restaurants, gyms

-What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won’t hurt my feelings

-Is there an age range I should be targeting (I’m 25)?

– Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east side so plain? I’ve seen really ‘plain jane’ boring types who have nothing to offer married to incredibly wealthy guys. I’ve seen drop dead gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village. What’s the story there?

– Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows – lawyer, investment banker, doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they hang out? Where do the hedge fund guys hang out?

– How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE ONLY

Please hold your insults – I’m putting myself out there in an honest way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I’m being up front about it. I wouldn’t be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn’t able to match them – in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a nice home and hearth.

it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Answer from a $500K+/year male:

Dear Pers-431649184:

I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament.
Firstly, I’m not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here’s how I see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here’s why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here’s the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity…in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you’re 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold…hence the rub…marriage. It doesn’t make good business sense to “buy you” (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease. In case you think I’m being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It’s as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as “articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful”
as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K hasn’t found you, if not only for a tryout.

By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn’t need to have this difficult conversation.

With all that said, I must say you’re going about it the right way.
Classic “pump and dump.”
I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.

What a perfect reply! Trophy wives are depreciating assets. Therefore it is smart to never marry a trophy wife, but dating them would be fine.

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American Express Password Security or Should I Say Insecurity

I believe I saw this post from Digg: Password Security – Or Lack There Of and he has the exact same feelings I have toward American Express’ password requirement, which is so lenient, it’s scary…

My password lengths generally range between 12-16 characters with a mix of lower case, upper case, numbers and symbols, but American Express requires your password be 6-8 characters long. What!?!?! I can’t believe they would enforce such a weak password. I can understand if you have a lower bound of 6 for people who don’t care that their accounts can easily be hacked into, but for people who want to make it harder for the crackers out there, why is the limit so low?

I even b*tched about it to Derek awhile back:

Krunk4Ever: i don’t get any finance website
Derek: ?
Krunk4Ever: that limits you to a password of 6-8 characters
Derek: 🙂
Krunk4Ever: hsbc used to do that
Krunk4Ever: but they’ve fixed it
Krunk4Ever: but amex still limits you to 8

I mean if you applied a password strength to any 6-8 alphanumeric password, it probably won’t ever go beyond medium strength.

Hopefully with all this bad press about American Express’ password weakness, they’ll step up fix this problem.

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Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist is a very interesting documentary I had downloaded awhile back. It’s actually a free documentary and you can stream it via Google Video or download a higher quality version using bittorrent.

Anyway, when I first started watching the film, I didn’t realize it was 3 parts, so I thought it was just a documentary on Christianity as the 1st part is about Jesus and the era of the Bull and the 2 fish and so on. It was fascinating, but not enough for me to watch it right then and there. So I put it on my back burner of stuff to watch when I eventually end up with some free time.

After posting my blog entry on Corrupt Banking System, RayAlome had asked if I had watched Zeitgeist yet as it contained very good information about the history of the Federal Reserve. I said I didn’t realize Zeitgeist talked about the Federal Reserve, but honestly, I’ve read a lot about the Federal Reserve already, usually linked to how it’s unconstitutional along with income tax; how the Federal Reserve scams the American people by controlling the money supply, when they’re not part of the government at all, but owned by private corporations; etc.

The film is almost 2 hours long and contains 3 parts: Christianity, 9/11, and The Federal Reserve. If you don’t have a full 2 hours to watch the entire film, I’d suggest you watch just Part 3, which begins at 01:09:17.

I give you this excellent quote from the narrator:

For every single dollar produced by the central bank, it is loaned at interest. That means every dollar produced is that dollar + a certain amount of debt based on that dollar. And since the central bank has a monopoly of the money production for the entire country, and they loan each dollar out with immediate debt attached to it, where does the money to pay for the debt come from? It can only come from the central bank again. Which means the central bank has to perpetually increase its money supply, to temporarily cover the outstanding debt created, which in turn since that new money is loaned out at interest as well, creates even more debt. The end result of is this system without fail is slavery, for it is impossible for government and thus public to ever come out this self generating debt.

Therefore, it is impossible in our current system for all debt, especially the government’s $9 trillion debt to ever disappear.

Speaking of which, did you know that most if not all income taxes Americans pay goes directly to pay for the interest generated by the government debt. The fact that the income tax amendment was created the same time that the Federal Reserve was created is not a coincidence. This little tidbit I knew before watching this film. Apparently, the income tax amendment was never ratified by the required 3/4 of all the states.

What never really made sense is the fact that the government borrows money from the Federal Reserve, who creates money to loan to the U.S. Government, but charges interest. Shouldn’t the interest be paid back to the government? Why is the interest paid to a select few private corporations?

The war tidbit of the documentary is fascinating. They provided interesting reasons to why America entered certain wars and how wars weren’t fought to be won, but fought to be extended for as long as possible. Wars are very lucrative to bankers as that’s when the government will keep borrowing money to fund the war. You should see the guidelines provided to the soldiers of the Vietnam War as it’s ridiculous and one of the reasons why that we lost so many soldiers.

Derek Tekmanrj has remarked what’s wrong with our money supply is due to the fact that it’s fiat money, basically it’s money because the government says so. Before, you were able to take a dollar and redeem it for gold and explicitly says so on the bill itself. Now, it just says legal tender which means it’s backed by nothing. The documentary also goes into this area, but not too deep.

Here are some interesting quotes I thought I’d share:

Give me control of a nation’s money supply, and I care not who makes its laws.

– Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Founder of Rothschild Banking Dynasty

“WE’RE IN A LOT OF TROUBLE! Because you people, and 62 million other Americans, are listening to me right now. Because less than 3% of you people read books. ‘Cause less than 15% of you read newspapers. Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole … an entire generation, that never knew anything that didn’t come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel…the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.

And when the largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what SHIT we’ll be peddling for truth on this network.

So, you listen to me…LISTEN TO ME! Television is not the truth…television is a goddamn amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side show freaks, lion tamers and football players. We’re in the boredom killing business.

But you people sit there day after day, night after night…all ages, colors, creeds. Where are you now? You’re beginning to believe the illusions we’re spinning here…you’re beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like a tube, you eat like a tube, you raise your children like a tube; you even THINK like a tube. This is MASS MADNESS you MANIACS! In God’s name, you people are the real thing…WE ARE THE ILLUSION!”

This was actually taken from a 1976 film called Network: Television Is Not The Truth and modified a bit.

An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland.

– Adolf Hitler
When announcing the Gestapo to the people

As the documentary continues, his pushes the idea that the main goal of a central banking system is One World Government.

Did you know that Bush is secretly pushing for a North American Union. Only one news reporter has ever reported about it on TV and that’s CNN. Everyone else has never even brought up the topic. Apparently, this has no consent from Congress either. If you haven’t heard of the North American Union, you probably haven’t heard of Amero either. Amero will be the new currency that will be used throughout the North American Union. Doesn’t this sound rather familiar to you? Of course! European Union, Euro, etc.

According to this documentary, an African Union and an Asian Union will also be formed. Who’s behind all this? Why, isn’t it the same investors of the Federal Reserve? Of course, I’d take that with a grain of salt, but the theory is enough to scare me.

Once again, I highly recommended watching Part 3 of this documentary.

On a related note, Ungsunghero told me that Netbank has closed/failed and the FDIC has taken over them. According to the closing information, all existing accounts will be transferred to ING. According to CNN’s article: 2nd UPDATE: US Federal Regulators Close NetBank:

NetBank marked the largest bank to fail since since the early 1990s, which marked the end of the savings and loan crisis. The Office of Thrift Supervision closed NetBank at 3 p.m. EDT, the federal regulator said, and the company was immediately taken into receivership by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

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Corrupt Banking System

First thing first, after the Feds decided to drop rates by 0.5%, many banks have been following suit with ING Direct’s interest rates now down to 4.30% and HSBC Direct announcing a drop to 4.50%. Oh well, I’d wait a bit before deciding if I should move my money around, since I’m pretty sure more banks will drop in the next few weeks.

Speaking of which, the $50 ING sign up bonus is back! Well, for awhile. Exclusive $50 bonus for nytimes.com readers who open an account with an initial deposit of at least $250 by 10/01/07! For those who haven’t opened an ING account yet, this is a great bargain as the usual bonus is $25 for you and $10 for your referrer.

Anyway, the main topic of this blog is the Corrupt Banking System. I knew banks created money out of thin air, but when CMDCC asked how it was done, I wasn’t able to give a detailed explanation. However, the following documentary was posted on YouTube and is a must watch if you’re into how banks work: Corrupt Banking System.

It’s a 5 part series:

  1. Cartels Robbing the Public
  2. How Money is Created
  3. Money is Debt
  4. Monetary Reform
  5. Warning About the NWO

Currently America is over $9 trillion in debt, but how did we get into this situation? Who are we borrowing from? Who has all that money to loan to us? Many people actually don’t know that the Federal Reserves isn’t actually part of the government, but is controlled by a small group of board of directors, usually major banking players. They’re the ones in charge of our nation’s entire financial situation, including printing money. How can we outsource printing of money to private organizations? You can read more about The Fed on Wikipedia.

Back to the videos. I’ve only watched 2 of them so far, but it’s told me more than I need to know about how banks can create money out of thin air. Today, when banks loan you money, I always thought they can only loan you money they already have (from deposits and reserves), but apparently that isn’t the case. Banks can loan you money backed by some small amount of reserve and the promise you’ll repay the debt. To give you an example, the current ratio (I forget the terminology) is 9:1. For every $1 the bank has, they can loan out $9. That is to say if the bank has $1000 in its reserves, it can loan out $9000 just based on the promise that you’ll repay the debt. In other words, $8000 was created out out of thin air, loaned to you, and now you have to pay interest on that $8000 that didn’t exist in the first place.

After realizing that, I just couldn’t stop thinking HOW CAN THEY DO THAT!?!?!?

The documentary goes further into proving that for every $1 that a bank has, it can eventually loan out $90 (90x the original investment). Banks expect money they loan out to be paid to someone, who’ll eventually deposit the money back into a bank. Because the banking system is a closed system, all the money just circulates within themselves. And with the new deposit, they have new money to loan out, each time, less than what they can loan out previously. And with a simple area under the curve calculation, it comes out to the fact that you can loan out 90x what you originally have.

This gets me really pissed off just thinking about it. Imagine a $360,000 mortgage loan (pretty close to what I have). Basically the bank only needs to have $40,000 in order to issue me that loan. And it would make sense if I had to pay interest only on the amount they have. But no, they’re charging me interest on the full $360,000 amount. No wonder banking investments are so lucrative.

This got me thinking… If I have $40,000 just lying somewhere, can I issue myself a $360,000 loan and just make monthly payments back to myself? It took me awhile to get my head wrapped around that idea, because basically every monthly payment I make would disappear into the abyss because it never really existed in the 1st place, but that’s basically how the banks do it. Then it also got me thinking, can I issue myself a interest-free loan? That’d be sweet!

Maybe I should get into the banking business after all. Create money out of thin air and make interest off of it.

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Lost Bank of America Check Card

So on Saturday, after my haircut, I went to deposit some money into my Bank of America checking account. Everything went through fine, until I got back to the car. I was still enjoying my mocha frappuccino when I thought to myself… did I remember to take my ATM card. Let me back track a bit. The barbershop that I’ve been going to has a Starbucks next to it. Across the street is a Bank of America. So I start searching through my pockets and my wallet, but my ATM card was no where in sight. It couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes and there was no one around or anyone I noticed when I was leaving the ATM. So I run back to the ATM, but the card was no longer there. I started searching the around the area and the trash bin and so on, but didn’t find anything. I tried to remember back to the time when I was leaving, cause usually if you don’t remember to take your card, it starts beeping like crazy. However, I don’t recall it beeping at all. The only explanation I could come up with was that I had taken the receipt and left and it was on the screen asking me if I wanted to make another transaction. Receiving no response, it reset and ate the card. However, I couldn’t eliminate the possibility of someone taking the card after I left.

Anyway, I take out the BofA receipt and call the customer service phone number listed on it. Unfortunately, going through the automated answering machine, it informs me that they are currently close and I should call back on Monday. I was like F*CK! F*CK! F*CK! There was really nothing I could do at this point, so I drove home contemplating what my next move was. Since this ATM card could also act as a debit card, I needed to report it stolen asap. Thank god that this account only has about $300 in it, so I wasn’t too worried. Worse case scenario would be to lose all that $300. Anyway, when I got home and checked Bank of America’s website. The latest transaction was still just my deposit. I clicked on their Contact Us link and apparently they have a 24/7 hot line to report stolen/missing credit and check cards. Awesome!

I give the number a call and was quickly assisted is blocking the card. The rep gave me 2 options: To issue me a new card (takes 7-10 business days) or temporarily block the card and allow me to search for it and call back when I find it. I opted for issuing a new card and if I really needed to access my BofA checking account in the meantime, I can always go in and see a teller.

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$25 Costco Cash Card For Signing Up For American Express

So I recently got a packet from American Express trying to get me to sign up friends and family for the American Express TrueEarnings credit card (Costco credit card). At first I didn’t care much for it, but after reading through the details, it seems like a good deal for both me and whoever I’m referring.

I received 4 of these postcards to distribute to friends:
amex trueearnings credit card $25 costco cash card referral

If you sign up, you get a $25 Costco Cash Card after your first purchase and I get a $25 Costco Cash Card for referring you. When I signed up for my Amex card, I didn’t get any type of sign up bonus, so I personally think this is a good deal for those Costco members who haven’t gotten the Costco Amex. You can read my Credit Card Arsenal entry to see why this card is that great and a must have for any Costco member. Some say that it’s not worth getting a Costco membership just to get this credit card, but I’ve always seen it as a bonus that I get for having a Costco membership. I mean, even without this credit card, I’d still have my Costco membership.

Here are the details:

Carry the TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express and we’ll give you a $25 Costco Cash Card you can use to pick up something for yourself.

  • You’ll earn 3% cash back for eating out, 2% for traveling, and 1% back everywhere else, including Costco.
  • There’s no annual fee for the Card with your paid Costco memberhsip.
  • There’s no limit to the cash back you can earn.
  • You’ll have the flexibility to pay over time.

Visit americanexpress.com/costcofriend to learn more and sign up today!

UNIQUE ID: 3071220387
EXPIRES ON: October 14, 2007

——————

  • A $25 Costco Cash Card will be awarded within 14 weeks after your first purchase appears on your monthly billing statement. Costco Cash Cards are for first time Cardmembers only. See application for details at americanexpress.com/costcofriend. Applicant understands and agrees that American Express Cardmember who referred him/her may be compensated with a Costco Cash Card if his/her application is approved, and may be able to tell if his/her application is declined or approved.
  • Eligible Purchases earn a rebate of 1, 2, or 3 percent as follows: 3% at restaurants; 2% for travel purchases from airline, lodging, car rental, cruise line, travel agency, and tour operators; and 1% on all other Eligible Purchases. “Eligible Purchases” do NOT include returned purchases, Fees, Finance Charges, Cash Advances, Balance Transfers, purchase of American Express Travelers Cheques, American Express Gift Cheques, and other cash equivalents. Rebates are awarded each February in the form of an in-store coupon redeemable for merchandise or cash at any U.S. Costco Warehouse. To receive the rebate your account must be open and you must present the coupon at Costco prior to the coupon expiration date. Rebates less than $1 will be forfeited. Forfeiture rules for late payment also apply.

J357:0001

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Taxable Food Items

So when going through my Costco receipt yesterday, I noticed that I was charged tax for my Poppy Seed Salad and my Made In Mexico Coca Cola. Let me tell you what I’ve always thought about food taxes. I had always assumed that items that are served to you (i.e. in a restaurant) or made ready to consume (i.e. to go sandwiches) are taxable. All other food items generally are not taxable with the exception of special cases like alcohol and etc. I thought maybe that’s how they indicate the CRV for aluminum cans (glass bottles in this case), however it was indeed taxed according to my math.

Anyway, I was shocked to find out my Coca Cola was taxed. I was wondering if it had to do because it was foreign product or maybe it was a mistake. I searched online and found this page: Ready-to-Eat Food:

Flour, sugar, bread, milk, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and similar groceries are not taxable. Candy, soft drinks, and gum are taxable, however.

Food is also taxable when served in restaurants and similar places of business. Listed below are some guidelines to help you determine when food is taxable and when it’s not.
These items are taxable:

  • prepared food sold with eating utensils;
  • food kept hot (ready to eat), such as barbecued chicken (whether whole or pieces), chili, and soups;
  • ready-to-eat sandwiches (but not frozen sandwiches);
  • all ice cream sundries, unless sold prepackaged in boxes;
  • all soft drinks (including powdered drink mixes), diluted juices (50 percent or less vegetable or fruit juice), beer, and wine;
  • tea, coffee, and juices sold in restaurants, lunch counters, cafeterias, vending machines, and hotels, or sold ready for immediate consumption from pushcarts, cars and trucks, or any other vehicle;
  • individual-sized portions (including super-sized servings) or packages of food such as chips and peanuts when they are sold from a lunch counter or snack bar; and
  • ice.

Retailers who mix two or more food ingredients on the premises to sell by weight or volume (for example, salad) as a single item must collect sales tax unless the product is typically reheated prior to eating (e.g., macaroni and cheese).

This rule does not apply to bakery items and food that is only cut, repackaged, or pasteurized.

A business that provides eating facilities, such as tables and chairs or booths, must collect tax on food sold ready to eat.

Bakery products are not taxable unless sold with plates or eating utensils. Bakery products include refrigerated pies, cakes, tarts, and cookies but do not include entrees that are “baked.”

A juice drink (e.g., orange juice, grapefruit juice, tomato juice) that contains more than 50 percent fruit or vegetable juice by volume is not taxable unless sold ready for immediate consumption. “Ready for immediate consumption” means, for example, served in a cup or with a straw. A store that has eating facilities such as tables and chairs must collect tax on sales of individual-sized bottles or cartons even if they contain more than 50 percent fruit or vegetable juice.

Convenience stores and grocery stores that don’t have eating facilities should not collect tax on chips, cookies, crackers, peanuts, and similar snack foods even when sold in individual-sized containers. Items purchased with the Lone Star Card are exempt from sales tax.

Water is not taxable unless it is flavored.

I’m shocked. It appears soda has always been taxed. Even when it’s not sold ready to be consumed. In my case, I don’t consider room temperature soda to be ready to be consumed.

On the same site as above, they have a complete list of which items are taxable and which items aren’t taxable: Grocery and Convenience Stores: Taxable and Nontaxable Sales

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Credit Card Arsenal

While paying for dinner today, the conversation of credit cards came up and both Tekman and I use our Amex Costco card because it gives us 3% back. I was shocked to hear there were a few in the group that don’t even get 1% back, the bare minimum reward most credit cards come with nowadays. I brought up the fact I have 4 credit cards I use on a daily routine and people were shocked at how many I use. They were curious if I used it to keep track of purchases which I guess is a side effect of what I do, but it was mainly due to the fact different credit cards have different reward levels for different purchases.

My current arsenal includes the following:

– Chase Cash Plus Rewards Card –

chase cash plus rewards card

Your Chase Cash Plus RewardsSM card earns rewards 5 times faster on everyday purchases.

With your Cash Plus Rewards card, you earn 5 points for every eligible dollar spent on gas, grocery and drugstore purchases. Plus, you earn 1 point for every eligible dollar spent on purchases made elsewhere.

You can redeem 5,000 points for:

* $50 check
* $50 gift card from popular stores & restaurants

Buy the things you need and get the rewards you want with your Cash Plus Rewards card!

5 points for every dollar translates to 5% cash back. I’m limited to a maximum of 30,000 points annually, which translates to a max of $300 in cash back. I don’t think I’ve ever reached that amount, probably due to the fact I’m single and no kids. There was even a $50 or $100 bonus when I signed up for this card. However, this card is no longer available to sign up for.

This card came out to compete against the Citi Dividend Platinum Select card which had the similar rewards program with 5% back on the same 3 categories. I also have the Citi Dividend card, but have retired it due to the fact the reward program has dropped to 2% from 5%. You can still sign up for the Citi Dividend card, which now also includes convenience stores and utilities and gives 5% cash back for the first 6 months, but drops to 2% afterwards.

According to this FatWallet thread, it appears that this reward program maybe ending soon. People have been getting letters from Chase stating the program will be changed to 3% cash back on the 3 categories you spend the most money in. I personally haven’t received the letter yet and my online rewards program details still shows what I pasted above.

I basically use this credit card only for gas, supermarket, and drug stores.

– Advanta BusinessCard –

advanta platinum businesscard

Cash Back

Automatically earn 5% Cash Back on gasoline, office supplies, utilities, computer equipment, cell phones and Internet services, and 1% on all other purchases.

This one has a limit of $25 cash back per month, so I don’t use it for gas since I have the other card. There’s already been a couple times where I surpassed the $25 limit, seeing how I purchase a lot of computer equipment. I also stack my cable internet/tv bill and my garbage bill on this card. Any time I make a purchase at Office Depot or Staples, it also goes on this card. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to put my energy bill (electricity and gas) since Puget Sound Energy doesn’t accept credit cards. I don’t have a phone bill and my dad pays for my cell phone bill, so that isn’t applicable to me either, but may to you. They automatically mail you a check when you accrue $50 in cash back and I hit that amount pretty much every 3 months.

You can still apply for this card. There is one caveat for this card, and that’s the fact you do need to provide a business name. The name of your business gets printed on the Credit Card itself in italicized Times New Roman font, but besides that I don’t believe they verify if you’re the real owner of this business or if it even exits. I am not suggesting you lie and provide fake information just to get this card. I’m just providing as much details as possible.

A very similar card is the American Express SimplyCash Business Card which also has 5% cash back on gas, office supplies, and wireless services and 1% cash back on virtually all other purchases. However, the fact the SimplyCash card is an American Express while the Advanta card is a Mastercard means the Advanta card would be accepted in more places.

– American Express TrueEarnings Card –

american express trueearnings card

Eligible Purchases earn a rebate of 1, 2 or 3 percent, as follows: 3% at restaurants, 2% for travel purchases from airline, lodging, car rental, cruise line, travel agency and tour operators; and 1% on all other Eligible Purchases. The rebate is issued annually in your Cardmember billing statement as a coupon redeemable at Costco. See your Cardmember Agreement for eligibility requirements and complete terms and conditions.

This is the card I save for restaurants and of course Costco, since that’s the only credit card they accept. There is no annual or monthly limit like the other cards I’ve mentioned, so you can earn as much cash back as you want with this card.

Unfortunately, to be applicable for this card, you need to be a Costco member, which automatically means the $50 membership fee.

Another thing about this card is that they mail you the cash back in the form of a Costco check. Don’t be fool that this is a gift certificate that has to be fully used at Costco. You are always allowed to opt to get the entire check in cash at any Costco register. However, if I’m at Costco already, I don’t really see myself ever walking out of there empty handed, though I have done that before.

– Discover Cashback Bonus Card –

discover cashback bonus card

Sign up to get 5% Cashback Bonus on gas, hotels and summer fun with the Get More program.
Only Discover Card offers 5% Cashback Bonus on Get More purchases in categories like travel, home, gas, restaurants, movies and more. Watch your e-mail alerts and Account statements to see which categories will give 5% Cashback Bonus next.
5% to 20% Cashback Bonus at top online retailers through ShopDiscover
Get up to 1% Cashback Bonus on all your other purchases automatically.

The Discover card has always been a toss up. Their 5% cash back program changes every quarter (3 months) and some times you get really good categories like restaurants and movies, but other times you get stuck with home and apparel which I hardly make purchases in. The worst part of the program is they make you click the sign up link in order to activate the new quarter’s 5% bonus program. Therefore if you forget to do so every quarter, you won’t be getting the benefits of the program. Plus the fact that about half the places I go don’t accept Discover really limits its usage. It appears this card also doesn’t have any cap on the amount of cash back you can get back.

They also often have specific stores which give you 5% cash back. I took advantage of it when they had Amazon.com, Circuit City, Lowes, and Linen ‘n Things.

This card is available for anyone to sign up for.

– Fidelity Investments Rewards Card –

fidelity investment rewards card

Unlimited rewards; earn one point for every dollar in net retail purchases

Every time you accumulate 5,000 points, convert them to a $75 deposit into your eligible Fidelity Account2, a 1.5% redemption rate

Redeem points for travel on major U.S. airlines with no blackout dates or for brand-name merchandise, gift certificates, and more

MyConciergeSM Personal Concierge Service offers customized services 24/7, including dining arrangements and reservations, gifts and personal shopping, tickets for sporting events, concerts and shows, unique transportation, and more

This is the newest card in my arsenal and is what I consider to be my fall back card. Why settle for 1% cash back which all these other cards are already providing, when you can settle for 1.5% cash back. If something doesn’t fall into any of the categories that gives me over 1.5% cash back with the credit cards above, I’ll end up using this card. This latest statement shows that I’m currently at 4500 points. So $500 more, and they’ll be depositing $75 into my Fidelity account.

Unfortunately, to benefit from this credit card, you’ll need a Fidelity investment account. As a Microsoft employee, I have one by default, but not many people do and Fidelity isn’t the cheapest stock broker out there. However, it probably is one of most reliable stock brokers around, having great customer service and research information available. After you deposit the $75 into your Fidelity account, I’m pretty sure you can immediately withdraw if you want, but I’m guessing they’re hoping you’ll be investing that amount.

For more information, you can visit Fidelity’s site.

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New Projects and Blogs

Wow… It’s been awhile since my last post, but I’ve been working on a new project which isn’t quite ready to be revealed yet. It will be in due time. I’ve also started 3 separate blogs:

  • HD Trailers – A blog about HD (High Definition) Trailers and how to download them
  • Modern Evolution – Evolution is happening everywhere around us today.
  • Sue Happy – Just how “Sue Happy” is America?

The latter 2 are just collections of articles which I find particularly interesting, while also giving my opinion on them. The 1st one (HD Trailers) might be retired once my “project” gets completed.

Random Crap:

Perfect Petzzz (from Cari) – These sleeping puppies and kittens plush / stuffed animals are so cute!!!

Yahoo! Be a Better Planet (from SD) – Yahoo! is on a mission to find and reward America’s most eco-friendly city. Can your hometown claim that title? Join in now to help your city win a fleet of hybrid taxis, and get free compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) for your efforts. I’ve also been a big fan for fluorescent light. Not only because it saves me a bunch on my electricity bill, but also the fact that it’s white light compared to the yellowish light most regular light bulbs emit. Also, you never burn yourself trying to touch one, because it just never gets that hot.

Prosthetics (from Digg) – Robert Barron is a master of disguises. He uses his artistry to create realistic body parts for those who are missing them.

The man who owns the Internet – Kevin Ham is the most powerful dotcom mogul you’ve never heard of, reports Business 2.0 Magazine. Here’s how the master of Web domains built a $300 million empire.

Online Savings from Washington Mutual (from SD) – Wamu apparently has joined the rank of the online high interest savings account game. Although 5% isn’t shocking to many, the good thing about Wamu is the fact they have branches everywhere. You can easily link up your checking account and online savings account. When you use your Wamu ATM card at any ATM, they won’t charge you any fee. I’m not certain if they’ll refund the fees that the ATM itself charges, but Wamu has always been customer friendly in my opinion.

Robot Arm Pours Beer Into Glass (from MS newsgroup) – You’ve probably seen the Kuka Robotic Arm in other videos before (one even had it swinging samurai swords around), but this one is program to perfect beer pouring from a bottle into a glass.

Hjo3 posted this awhile back about how the opening song of BPS (Battle Programmer Shirase) is actually using the melody of Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up. I never knew this, then again I’m not that familiar with songs from the 80’s and 70’s, but this was interesting trivia knowledge. I do have to say, Rick Astley’s voice doesn’t quite match his face.

Ant Buster (from Digg) – Another Tower Defense type of game, where this time, there’s actually more freedom for the attackers, and the attackers (ants) are actually stealing pieces of pizza from you.

Xbox LIVE Brings You Even More Matrix Content (from Ars) – I got my copy a few days ago. Circuit City had it on sale for $20 (price mistake) and they actually decided to ship 1 copy per customer, which was pretty cool. Then again, I don’t have a HD DVD player yet, but Matrix being my favorite movie of all time, I have a hard time deciding if I should sell this or not. Plus the fact, I can download the Animatrix in HD via Xbox Live makes it even tougher. When you purchase The Complete Matrix Trilogy, you will also receive a token in the box to download the entire Animatrix series from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace. Unfortunately, I posted this a bit too late, but you were also able to download HD trailers and clips of the Matrix via Xbox Live: From May 15 through May 25, download free content like HD trailers from all three Matrix movies and some of your favorite scenes in HD like “Bullet Time in the Subway” and “Morpheus fighting Agent Smith.” You can also purchase and download themes for all three films plus Animatrix.

Captive shark had ‘virgin birth’ (from Digg) – Female hammerhead sharks can reproduce without having sex, scientists confirm. Story was somewhat interesting, but the funniest was when commented: Jesus Shark?

Top 4 Ways You’re Wasting Gas When You Think You’re Saving It (from Digg) –

  1. Driving across town to save a nickel on a gallon of gas.
  2. Driving on the highway with their windows down to avoid using the air conditioner.
  3. Driving with their truck’s tailgate down.
  4. Accelerating extremely slowly.

#1 is a toughie. I agree that it’s rather stupid to drive across tow to save a nickel per gallon, but what about driving 3 blocks or planning a trip across town so you can stop by the cheap gas station? CDMCC and I had an argument about this awhile back. It wasn’t really about saving on gas, but the time you spent driving 3 extra blocks to save a dime per gallon. If you have a 15 gallon tank, that equates to a saving of $1.50. To drive those 3 extra blocks, you’ve wasted more than 5 minutes already. Is 5 minutes of time really worth the $1.50 savings? I dunno, but coming from a family that squeezes the most out of a penny, I’m always willing to drive the 3 extra blocks, and with tools like Seattle Gas Prices (or the corresponding gas price searching tool for your area), it makes it easy to find the gas stations that is cheap and not too far out of your way.

#2 is also something I’ve known for awhile, since Mechy often talked about aerodynamics of car. Opening windows just breaks that efficiency.

15 (Painfully) Unforgettable Cartoon Theme Songs (from Digg) – It’s tragic, really. For every math formula forgotten, every anniversary that passes unremembered, and every pet ferret dead from starvation, there’s a cartoon theme song from our youth, tenaciously hogging our limited mental hard drive space. In what is perhaps some sort of small attempt to exorcise these demonically persistent tunes from the depths of our consciousness, we’ve ranked 15 of them through the highly technical and thoroughly researched process of writing down whichever ones we could remember/find on YouTube first. Enjoy. Haha! Ungsunghero and I enjoyed this post as it sure brought back a bunch of memories. We even pointed out a few that they forgot to include: Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck. What happened to cartoons? They use to be awesome and now, they’re just the same stupid crap over and over again.