We all heard of traditional Piggy bank. Either you were taught to use Piggybank to save money  by your parents or as a parent you are teaching kids to use to save money. Piggy bank helps to nurture saving habit in us. That trend has gone digitial few years back and many started using digital bank like Digital Money jar show here. Now Internet has taken that further to another level and we now have SmartyPig. I call it, adult version of Piggy bank or Piggy bank webicized.

In my last post, I talked little about Smartypig.com and promised to post a detail further blog after my first use. With first hand user experience at SmartyPig.com, I am posting this blog to share my views, saving strategy and tips/tricks to get around the site.. 

It is not real big or new innovation. I like the concept of taking the traditional piggy bank saving to Internet and giving it a boost by adding social media networking to it. They call it a unique patent pending savings program launched to help people save for specific goals.

How can you use it?

First of you should set you mindset, it is neither a bank or credit union. It is just finance based internet company which bridges consumers and banking breaking away from traditional savings methodology. I came to know about this website from mymoneyblog.com.

Usually, we either have checking account for daily transaction and savings account for saving money that earns a meager interest, currently .50%. We also sometimes have CD’s to save for longer term. These traditional saving mechanism are less flexible and doesn’t open doors to accept external contributions. SmartyPig bring it all together. SmartyPig is all about giving importance to your goals and savings account is  placed behind it.

You can have any number of goals you want and start putting money to it. You don’t have worry about opening any savings or CD’s. To top it, you can even accept contributions towards your goals via social media sites like facebook.  Like if you are saving for your kids education, instead of getting stuck in 529 savings plans, you open smartypig account and accept contribution from kids grandparents and relartives. That’s smart but the draw back it only earn savings rate not investment rate of return.

Interest is configured using a daily accrual method, compounded quaterly and posted to a customer’s account but  up-todate earning is shown in your account.

Good, Bad and Ugly

1. Account gets high interest from reputed BBVA bank. High interest rate of 2.15% as of Sep, 3, 2010 and will reduce to 1.75% from Sept 7th, 2010. Still by par to any banks, even INGDirect.com
2. All your funds are insured by FDIC upto $250,000. The site is secured by Verisign.com and other security providers.
3. Get boost for your savings from retailer gift cards with bonus percentage added to it – Macy’s has 12% bonus.
4. Withdraws can be only via ACH transfers, debit card or retail shopping gift cards.
   
5. There is no Account number for your accounts because it is not traditional bank account. It is secured for security reasons.

Tips and Tricks

1. During the setup process, you can do one-time deposit or recurring. If you want to setup for recurring, you need put initial deposit which is one time and recurring amount. Initial deposit cannot be your first month deposit. So if you want initial deposit to start this smonth and recurring to kick start next month, that doesn’t work because recurring date is auto selected. So I have to do the initial deposit first and come back later time to setup recurring deposit to pick up next month date.

2. If you want to withdraw money from a goal, you cannot do partial withdrawal. Solution recommended, you can start a new goal and move the money to new goal leaving the money you want to withdraw. Then close the old goal to get the money transferred to your bank account or get debit card.

3. During the goal setup, once you add your goal amount and try to setup recurring deposit. There is a link to try SmartyPig reccuring deposit suggestion which calculates the recurring amount to reach your goal on time. It doesn’t consider friends contribution if you plan to get one.

These are some of tips/tricks which I figured out. They also have great FAQ section to clarify any of your doubts and bet they have good customer service to answer you calls. Try it out and you won’t really regret the extra yield from better interest rates.

Disclaimer: I am neither employee or advertiser and no way connected to Smartypig except being a valuable customer. The above posting is from my first hand experience with Smartypig website.

This week I am so happy and mentally relaxed, feeling a big sigh of relief.  I finally completed the CFP course and I am so excited about it.  Yes, I did it after all!!

Many of you know or might have saw it listed as one of my goals is to get CFP Certified by 2010. Completing 6 course series is one of the education eligiblity requirement to sit for CFP Certification.  While I am thrilled about finishing the course, I know my journey is not over yet. I just crossed half of the ocean. I need to cross another half and hope to make to the other side soon!!

Like my friends you might ask, what is CFP actually? What is the big deal in getting CFP certified? Let me explain a bit if you didn’t google about it.

What is CFP?

Many say CFP certification has reputation similar to ceritifications like CPA and tough to pass close to bar exams. It is recognized as standard among those who seek the knowledge and skills necessary to objectively assess their clients’ current financial status, identify problem areas, and recommend appropriate actions–in short, to provide comprehensive, client-based financial planning. With trouble economy, consumers are looking for trusted and authority advisors. CFP is a symbol of authority for planners to show their expertise in financial planning to help guide clients in the right path of financial well being. 

What is CFP certified means?

CFP ceritification is administered by CFP board which enforces strict rules and ethics to be followed by the planners. This gives great level of comfort to consumers who wants to talk about their personal financial matters and their future growth. It is difference as simple as asking advice from nobody or certified plumber to fix your faucet.

The Certified Financial Planner® or CFP® Professional Education Program has defined the financial planning profession since 1972 and has been the basis on which many other financial planning education programs have been developed.  

To become a CFP certificant, you must get thru (5 E’s):

1. Eligibility – To start with, certification will require an undergraduate bachelor’s degree from an accredited college.
2. Education - Satisfy an educational requirement taking CFP board-registered program if you don’t have finance background.
3. Exam – Pass the CFPCertification exam: a 10-hour test that takes 1.5 days (four hours on Friday and six hours on Saturday), conducted three times during the year (typically on the third Friday and Saturday of March, July and November).
4. Experience – Acquire three years of qualifying full-time work experience (or equivalent). Qualifying work experience is defined by the CFP board as “the supervision, direct support, teaching or personal delivery of all or part of the personal financial planning process to a client.
5. Ethics – Agree and adhere to the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility

As of now, I just got through 2 E’s and need to get pass another 3 E’s.

Motivation and Experience

I even asked myself, Why am I doing CFP? Being a software guy by education and profession, what is the need and motivation to take on this leap effort?  The answer in short, I am passionate about money management. At the same time, I want to share my wealth of every day successful experience about money and help guide others. In the blog flocked internet era, anybody who has small experience are also posting and sharing their experience. How can I differentiate myself and show authoritative. A person is only considered as an authoritative source only when he has formal education and experience.

Today, I share my knowlege and experience through this money matters website and other avenues as ordinary individual. But I want to be an authoritative source. I have motivator that’s Mr. Ray Lucia, CFP who can talk and answer almost any type of financial questions. I want to be like him, may be work for him some day. Whether I make money or not, I want to help middle class individual with their money and financial issues. 

One more thing, I like to challenge myself now and then. I get bored if I don’t do that. I took the challenge to run a marathon in 2002 just after starting to run in 2001. I completed in 3 hrs 41 mins. So this is another challenge which can help others too. I feel this is even bigger than Marathon. I have done many Microsoft certifications in the past and I thought it would be a breese.  I was proven wrong. I signed up for Self study course with Boston University CFP program. The program was well explained and also got good support from tutors. I paid only 60% of fees compared to other insitutions charge because I signed up the right time to get a very good offer.

 
I started at Dec 17,  2008 and took me till Jun 15, 2010. There were hundreds of topics discussed in detail manner. I thought of completing well in advance but once I started it took me 4 months to finish my first course and another 3 months to do the next one. I realized, I won’t be able to complete all of the course in 18 months time period given by BU. I have heard many people took 3-5 years via self study path and I don’t want to take that long. So I decided to speed it up and start to put more time and completed one by one in every 2 months by skipping the reading assignment.

I am so glad it is over and my long study hours are done for now.  It took around one and half year while working full time and having another baby along the way. It is well worth an experience to learn and connect every aspect to the real life scenorio. But it wasn’t an easy task. I am happy to have accomplished part of my 2010 goal.

For all these, I owe a Big Thank you to my lovely wife. She stood behind me, pushed me by reminding and encouraging me all the time to get this course completed.

Next Step

I am taking a break for couple of months. I am so close in getting my 2nd rental property and need to  work on it to put up for rental. After that, I plan to sign up for review classes in August to prepare for the Nov exams. I have confident and hope to clear the exams in the first attempt and plan to write about it. 
 

At the beginning of each year, people set resolutions to become better than the year before. The number of gym memberships rise each January. The phone calls to debt management companies sky rocket in the month of Jan. However, most resolutions are lucky to make it to March.

According to some statistics, 40 to 45% of American adult make one or more resolutions each year.  But I am not sure whether resolutions were famous or atleast slowly getting there too as many metropolitian cities are already in the path of westernization with Pizza’s and Burgers. Among the top new years resolutions are resolutions about weight loss, exercise, and stopping to smoke. Also popular are resolutions dealing with better money management / debt reduction.

The following shows how many of these resolutions are maintained as time goes on by these people:

- past the first week: 75%

- past 2 weeks: 71%

- after one month: 64%

- after 6 months: only 46%

It’s almost end of January, I bet many of you are scratching your head thinking “Why in the hell I made this resolution this year which I don’t think I can do it...” Are you one among those thousands of people made a resolution this year and thinking of giving up on them?

Don’t be embarssed on throwing them out. New year Resolutions never work and only works for 1 out of 1000. Whether the resolution is related to Health or Wealth, its is going to end up in trash after a month or two, maximum it will make till March.

Resolutions are made either to satisfy the inner feelings or to make you feel better on this year. It is impulse driven, short term and never yield results. Common reasons were no 100% committed, no self confidence, no proper plans, lack of time management, lack of support and fear. I like to call missing of 3C’s, Concentration, Commitment and Confidence.

But  don’t lose hope, there is help out there in a different avatar. It’s called GOAL setting. Many people think goal setting is a big commitment and Resolutions are not. Here you go again, its the very reason Resolutions don’t work. You have to commit yourself to bring change in you. No Pain, No Gain, you hear it all the time. If you aren’t commited, nothing will change. So don’t get scared of GOAL setting. It is simple and easily doable.  A small change and little bit of commitment to start with goes a long way.

Working towards goals with proper plan and action makes wonders and many people stand out as true examples. Instead of New year resolutions, try to set Goals and work towards smaller mile stones with a plan in place and taking proper action using those plan. You will be on your way to experiend the happy moments of reach your realistic goals.

I will show how Goals make magic in an easy and simple way and also guide you ”To be your own Financial Planner” in my next post. Just wait for few more days…

Do check my websites http://moneyreallymaters.com and  http://nrimoneyreallymatters.com for more interesting blogs.

        
Note: Don’t panic to see my new webpage look. You are still in Sulekha, Don’t leave.  I am a Select Beta tester helping Sulekha by testing their new interface.

I heard lot of crazy stories about westeners especially Americans. They do crazy things to have fun of any kind. I only get to see and experience when I got here. Especially, its true during the Halloween time.  Halloween is celebrated on the last day of Oct.  If you google it, you will be able to find out different versions of its history and how Halloween came into practice. I am going to stay away from the history part of it. 

Trick or Treat

This is been a traditional activity during the Halloween night(Oct 31st). Kids and even adults dress up in costumes of various horror characters like vampires, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Recently some costumes are also based on themes other than traditional horror, such as those of characters from movies and other pop culture icons. Many people just take it to extremes with their imagination and dress up so wild to look so realistic spooky characters. I even dressed up like scare crow character from the all time famous family movie Wizard of Oz.  

After the dress up, kids with adults supervision go in groups door to door inside their neighboorhood asking for Trick or Treat. They are suppose to go to the house only that has have patio lights switched on welcoming trick or treaters. OK! What does it mean Trick or Treat? If the House owner has a horror trick, they can show and BOO the kids. If not, they have to treat them with chunks of candies. otherwise, they can expect some horror stuff happen to them.

My little boy started his first Halloween lastyear when he was just 4 months dressed up as little elephant(dumbo) and now his 16 months and can walk too. So why miss the fun ?! 

Here he goes dressed up in Pumpkin costume ready for his Trick or Treat, cute huh!!

Walking with his mommy for his Trick or Treat

Bean Poriyal

Crisp green beans make for a great side dish. Bean’s Poriyaal is one of my all time favorite. Easy to cook, doesn’t take a lot of time at all. You can see beans poriyaal served in most of authentic wedding lunch. Here is my quick Bean Poriyal recipe for you to try it out.

Ingredients:

Fresh green beans 2 cups, chopped finely

Mustard Seeds (as needed)

Half cut Onion

Urad Dal 1/4 tsp

Dried Red Chilli 1 or 2 halved

Fresh grated coconut 1 tbsp , for garnishing

Oil 1/2 tsp, Salt to taste

Method:

- Heat oil in a pan. Pop mustard seeds.

- When they start to splutter add urad dal and Red chilli.

- Add onion to it. Let it fry until light redish color.

- After that add the beans, sprinkle little water and Mix well.

- Cover and cook for 8 – 10 minutes or until the beans are cooked.

- Add salt as needed and Finally garnish with coconut and serve hot with any meal.

I also like to try out some recipes from American Cancer Institute. They suggest really neat items good for our heart.

Green Beans with Tomatoes and Herbs

This recipe incorporates delicious sautéed tomatoes and aromatic herbs, adding lots of flavor without additional fat. The onion provides sweetness and, combined with garlic, add a variety of phytochemicals to this colorful dish.

Tasty Green Bean Saute

Ingredients

1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion, minced

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

1 large ripe tomato, diced, or 1/2 can (7 oz.), diced tomatoes, drained

1 tsp. minced fresh basil (or 1/2 tsp. dried)

1 tsp. minced fresh oregano (or 1/2 tsp. dried)

3/4 lb. fresh green beans, trimmed, or 1 package (10 oz.) frozen green beans,

thawed Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation:

In a nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, tomato, basil and oregano. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the green beans, cover and cook for 6 minutes, until the beans are crisp but tender. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Makes 4 servings.

Per serving: 54 calories, 2 g fat (<1 g saturated fat), 10 g carbohydrates,

2 g protein, 3 g dietary fiber, 7 mg sodium.

I always like to sprinkle my blogs with foodie ones, now and then especially with dishes I liked the most. Because I am fond lover of great healthy food. Hope you can try and let me know how you like it.

Sources: American Cancer Insitutue email. Photos from web.

My Son, my sweet little son who turned one last week brightens up my morning everyday with his cute little smile. A smile which shows all of his 4 teeth’s on top and 2 teeth’s on bottom like a squirrel which is so adorable. He is no more a baby, he is a growing boy. Here in US they say, he is not a infant anymore. He is a toddler now. 

Fun Places

Free Rides (I know we all love free stuffs)
Sam Houston Boat Ride – http://www.portofhouston.com/ - (FR, Free,1days)