Citi Forward (Thank You Points)

• Rewards: 5TYP/dollar spent at Restaurants, Amazon, bookstores, movies, video Rentals, record stores; 1TYP/dollar elsewhere
• Special features: 0% APR for first six months; 100TYP monthly for on-time payment; 5,000 TYP after $50 purchase in 3 months; 6,000 TYP when you sign up for paperless statement within three months of account opening

PenFed Visa Platinum Reward (Cash back credited monthly)

• Rewards: 5% back on Gas, plane tickets; 1.25% Everything else
• Special features: 2.99% BT for life

Pending: Schwab Bank Invest First™ Visa Signature (Deposited into Schwab One account every month)

• Reward: Unlimited 2% flat

Pending: Discover Current (Actually a debit card)

• Fees: $5 month or $50 a year

What would posses me to PAY far a debit card with no rewards? Hmm… how mysterious ]]> http://www.liujoshua.org/2009/05/12/new-credit-card-stack/feed/ 0 http://www.liujoshua.org/2009/05/11/cake-financial/ http://www.liujoshua.org/2009/05/11/cake-financial/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 20:09:20 +0000 joshuwaliu http://www.liujoshua.org/?p=129 I’ve been test driving Cake Financial for the last couple weeks. Cake Finance downloads data from your brokerage accounts for analysis. I think of it as the investment-focused relative of Yodlee. Cake Financial also ranks all users and creates a composite portfolio (CAKEDEX) from the top performing members and provides a social network to discuss securities, much like Motley Fool CAPS does.

The good

• Clear presentation of data and clear description of methodology
• Money-weighted performance metric, much more relevant to me than time-weighted or absolute rate of return
• Risk evaluation. Too many investment sites ignore this important measurement. To me this could become a hugely useful feature. Why not display the actual numbers for volatility, co-variance, etc wrt index of my choice (S&P)

The bad

• Does not recognize certain transactions like options trades. My reported risk and returns do not account for the options trading I started to do in my Roth IRA (the green line)
• Relatively few features. It feels like there are only a handful of things I can do right now. A handful of incredibly useful things, but still not enough for me to play around with.

Overall, I recommend this site and think everyone should give it a try. Individually checking all my accounts at various financial institutions takes a long time, but more significantly, presents me with a it disjointed view of my portfolio. It’s nice to have a tool that analyzes all my investments at once. I can see the aggregate risk, allocation and return of my portfolios and

KFC

Free KFC 2-piece grilled meal

Arby’s

Text “Roastburger” to 27297 (Arbys) and they’ll send you a text message for a free roastburger with purchase of medium drink.

Every Wednesday this summer, Arby’s will have a hot deal along with a minimal purchase. No coupon is necessary, just make sure your local Arby’s is participating. Enjoy! Here is the list:

May 13th – Free Roastburger with any soft drink purchase
May 20th – Free Chocolate Malt Swirl shake with any sandwich purchase
May 27th – Free Regular Roast Beef sandwich with any soft drink purchase
June 3rd – Free FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
June 10th – Free Roast Chicken Club with any soft drink purchase
June 17th – Free Regular Sidekicker with any sandwich purchase
June 24th -Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
July 1st – Free Regular Beef ‘n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase
July 8th – Free Orange Cream Swirl shake with any sandwich purchase
July 15th – Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
July 22nd – Free Roastburger with any soft drink purchase
July 29th – Free FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
August 5th – Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
August 12th – Free Roast Chicken Club with any soft drink purchase
August 19th – Free FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
August 26th – Free Regular Beef ‘n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase

mtvU: Restaurants, Amazon, Bookstores, Movies, Video Rentals, Record stores
PenFed pending approval: Gas
Discover Through March: Airline, Hotel, Car Rental

I sorely miss the early years when Citi Platinum Select and Dividend cards still offered 5% on utilities, drugstores, supermarkets, and cable bills. The Amazon and gas discounts have been around for years; I’ve actually had the mtvU card since 2006 too — oh how ignorant I was =( Amazon and gas have consistently been money-sucking black holes for me.

Oh, and my general purchase reward rate went from 1% to 1.25%, also thanks to PenFed. I’m pretty excited since I just received my Pentagon Federal Credit Union membership today. I’ll be reporting on the ridiculous discounts, benefits and deals I am anticipating.

1. Join Toastmasters and complete at least four projects in the Competent Communication manual
2. Spend at least 4 hours a week on academic pursuits.
3. Invite people to my apartment at least six times. This will force me to declutter regularly and be sociable.

Health Maintenance

1. Go to gym for at least 45 minutes, 3 times a week. I will start off with Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday schedule
2. Stop avoiding my problems, get three health issues addressed. I will disclose one on my blog: wisdom teeth removal (yikes!)

Financial Security

1. Keep emergency fund sufficient for three months’ living expenses.
2. Contribute 18% of  salary to Roth 401k.
3. Contribute at least $3,000 to Roth IRA for 2009, and make up $2,000 for 2008
4. File my own taxes
5. Acquire one new supplemental stream of income

An estimated 14-24 hours a week need to be allocated to meet these goals, which will also help improve my time management skills.

My first item of business will be to move any dividend-yielding positions into the Roth IRA.  A post against dividend stocks came across my Google Reader account, but I’m not at all convinced the arguments make sense and I think he is stretching Modigliani-Miller when reality does not really fit the assumptions.  But, then again, I’m also thinking about loading up on Northstar Realty Finance, so I may be crazy.

I have been watching NRF for a while and feel it’s been disproportionately affected by the sub-prime fiasco & credit crunch.  With the real estate sector a complete mess and the forced closing of long positions due to record levels of redemptions and hedge fund deleveraging, valuation is especially out of whack for stocks with lower volume and a high level of institutional ownership.  I have not read the company prospectus or listened in on the quarterly conference calls, so right now it’s just my gut feeling.  I’ll also add a disclaimer that I am not a financial adviser and this is not financial advice!

In truth, I think it would be wise to hold off on investing until VIX stabilizes below 50ish for a week or so.  The small investor is likely to be slaughtered in the current environment.  However, I’m willing to speculate a bit of money and get some action on the ridiculous volatility.  Yes, I would consider it speculation, not investing

I have been using a hodgepodge of services like Xanga and Google Reader for reading and posting for a well.  It’s become a hassle to work with.  This transition will allow me to consolidate my blog posts and also serve as a place to share interesting articles.  I will still continue to use Google Reader for the forseeable future.

The design of the blog will probably stay bland for a long time.  I’m not really a web design person — I can do it, but prefer to let others take care of the aesthetics.  In the meantime, I hope to create some interesting content.