Category Archives: Money

Money

Do you know your bankruptcy score?

Bankruptcy score? What the heck is that?

Yeah, that’s what I said. I only found out about it recently, when Trinity and I applied for a loan at our credit union to buy this here MacBook I’m typing on. (Yes, yes, I know we should have just saved up the money to buy it outright. But I can’t lug my iMac around to teach WordPress classes, and we still got a pretty good deal on the loan. Plus, when we pay it off early, there’s no penalty.)

Actually, the road to the MacBook Pro loan and the revelation of the bankruptcy score is a long one. Long story short — we tried to extend our credit line on one credit card, to adjust the ratio, but they denied us; we also tried to reopen a card we had paid off years ago, then stopped using, but that bank denied us. That was all even with Trinity’s excellent FICO score and my improving FICO score. (I was actually pleasantly surprised with how high my score was.) I was very pissed about all this, seeing as how both these banks are getting bailouts funded by taxpayer dollars, yet they are denying hard-working taxpayers with good credit like Trin and I (yet give sweetheart loans to these Democratic senators who have problems paying their taxes), but hey — you move on.

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A new day, a new MacBook Pro

This is my first post on our new MacBook Pro that arrived yesterday morning. Is it lovely? Yes. Is it pretty exciting? Yes. But I gotta say…..I’m not enamored the way I was with my iBook (first laptop) and our iMac (first computer Trinity and I bought together). Is that weird? Maybe its because I haven’t yet tried to take it out into the living room to blog whilst I watch TV, I don’t know. Plus, its weird to adjust to a 17-inch screen when you’ve been using a 24-inch display for the past year.

You may be wondering what’s with all the new gadgets. It’s simply coincidence. Yes, I finally got my Samsung Eternity, and I like it more and more as I use it. I’m glad I didn’t get the iPhone (which I almost did) because I am still amazed that AT&T has managed to get people to pay that much for a phone, plus the calling plan, plus the texting plan, PLUS the $30 data plan. Yeah, they don’t mention all that in the commercials. Anyway, we just got those phones, but technically, that was for Trinity’s birthday, which was in November.

The laptop, on the other hand, we bought sooner rather than later because I’m sort of teaching a WordPress workshop on Saturday and wouldn’t it be silly for the teacher to have to borrow someone’s laptop to teach a class? Yeah. Anyway, how we bought the laptop is a whole other story for another day. Now, I have to get to work to help pay for this laptop and the phone service!

Are you man enough to sit next to a netbook?

Last night, I came back from picking up dinner at Koo Koo Roo and was greeted by this picture. Yes, that would be beFrank, in front of a pair of newsroom computer monitors, but what I want to point out is that itty bitty screen next to the two monitors.

beFrank and his netbook

That would be a netbook. Isn’t it cute? As soon as I saw it, I came over (I didn’t walk far; my desk was just on the other end of that row, facing the other way) and started grilling him about it. He said it cost about $250 and worked pretty well once he stopped using the packaged software. It’s smaller than a piece of 8 by 11 paper when closed. The size of it reminds me of one of those portable DVD players. However, that’s not the funny thing about this.

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Call me the advice queen

Lately, people have actually been taking my advice. It’s a remarkable thing, really, since I don’t really consider myself to be knowledgeable about anything in particular…I just know how to do stuff, and do it as cheaply as possible. Ooh, I do know a lot about Southern California’s freeways.

Anyway, the bulk of the advice I’ve given recently has almost all been in regards to money in one way or another. And to be honest, a lot of is from making a bunch of mistakes first, then doing research later. Yep. I am so glad to be out of my 20s. Anyway, I figured I would share, just in case it helps anyone else.

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Finally settled on a new cell phone

So I think I’m going to go with the Samsung Eternity, after weeks of waffling between simply wanting a phone, wanting a phone that was a step up from my RAZR, then back to thinking if I was going to pay as much as I was for the Eternity (about $150, after rebate), I might as well get a freaking iPhone! After at least two months of consideration, I was finally sold by this review. Especially convincing was this note added a few weeks after the initial review:

So in summary, must have downloadable apps straight to your phone…Opera Mini 4.2, Gmail ande Google Maps. That should satisfy all your multimedia, web browsing and email needs. Won’t need to pay for the PDA or iPhone data package, and you will have a very good phone to last you at least another two years or until your next upgrade times. Thanks all!

See, yeah. That was my thing. I love the idea of a touchscreen phone, but if I’m going to go all out on this phone thing, I want video and a relatively good camera, too — and an iPhone doesn’t have video. Plus, there’s the major drawback of the required $30 data plan you have to get with an iPhone. People, I’m literally on a computer about 15 hours a day. If I’m at home, I’m usually online. If I’m at work, I’m of course online. Do I really need all that online access? No. The one thing I will concede on is getting a texting plan, finally. Ugh. I do NOT like the idea of getting a texting plan, even though everyone and their mom texts, especially after reading this story about how transmitting texts costs nothing for cell phone companies now that the infrastructure is in place. But I guess I gotta bite the bullet, especially since two very dear friends last summer were shocked to find out I didn’t get their text messages of condolences. No joke.