Author Archives: Money Reasons

About Money Reasons

A offbeat personal finance blogger that comes from the tech world.

Hybrid Smart Phone (Republic Wireless) Review

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Back in December of 2011, I signed up for a Hybrid Smart Phone by Republic Wireless.

Well, I’m happy to say I finally got the phone in the mail yesterday (October 31) for Halloween!   Surprisingly, its a decent phone and not really that scary… well except for the price of the physical phone itself!  So far the plan has been good, but this normally $90 android phone goes for $249 through the plan… ouch!

So to start, the price of the phone really is $249 + a start up fee of $29, but I also went out and spend an additional $13 on a larger SD memory card (the 2G disk that comes with the phone just doesn’t cut it, at least in my opinion).  So for me the phone costs: $291.  I upgraded the SD memory to a cheap 16G memory disk.  I got a cheap card because I don’t care if it goes bad because I’ll be backup up my stuff online anyway.

From my quick calculations, I figure that I’ll have to use the phone for 1 year before the cost savings of it being only $19 per month really takes effect.  So needless to say, the $249 price for a middle of the road phone was a bit of a disappointment.  Okay onto the phone itself…

Hybrid Smart Phone Review

The phone is a Motorola Defy XT and even though it’s a starter to mid-level phone, since it’s my first Android phone, I really like it!  I’m sure if I did have an android device previously though, it wouldn’t be that impressive.

Motorola Defy XT Specs:

  1. 1GHz Single Core CPU  – this made it fast between transitions from one page to the next.  Not bad…
  2. Memory – 512Mb – this is so-so for a smart device… not bad, but not great either…
  3. Camera – 5 MP – not bad and better than my employer’s business-issued Blackberry that I use to use.
  4. Diagonal Size – 3.7 inches – yeah, it’s small
  5. Battery life – 5.5 hrs, not good really, but I’ll live with…
  6. OS – Android 2.3.7 – definitely a middle of the road version, but supported and work well with the single core processor.

Why only 6 points for the specs?  because the rest really doesn’t matter since this is a “run of the mill” phone.  It is water resistance and a rugged phone, but the rest of the stats aren’t very impressive.  Since it uses rubber plug to make it water resistance, it kind of reminds me of those old Sony Walkman cassette devices from years long ago.

Hybrid Smart Phone Plan Review

Motorola Defy XT Republic Wireless Phone

Republic Wireless Highlights:

It’s unlimited everything!  Everything means phone calls, web/data access and texting.  This is a huge with many plans costing double or triple the cost of similar services.

How can they do this?  By hoping most of the “community” (Republic Wireless doesn’t refer to the “members” as customers, and calls their client base a “community”) do most of their transactions via wireless routers that they connect to.  So for instance right now my smart phone is connected to my local library network and that’s how I’m surfing.

For what they provided, it seems to be a lot of bang for the buck!

Other Republic Wireless Highlights

Okay, now onto the biggest gripe, if you make a call through your wireless router and continue to talk on your phone while you go to your car and drive away from your house (or wherever you are at), you will lose your phone call, and have to call the person you were talking to back.  This kind of suck, but hey… it’s a beta program, perhaps in the future they will fix this transition problem.

Since this is part of a beta program, my view is that it’s exciting and I’m enjoying being part of such a cheap program that provided such excellent functionality at a reasonable price ($19 per month).  Yeah, I wish the phone would have been cheaper, but most likely it will be in the future after the program goes from beta to production.

 My Favorite Aspect of the Smart Phone and Republic Wireless Plan

Obviously the price and service, but on an Android note, I like the Voice search app!  It’s nice to be able to speak commands instead of typing on the keyboard.  Although I have to admit, I’m already getting fast on the touch screen keypad (much to my surprise).

So do I recommend it?  Yes, based on my 2 day experience it’s a great frugal way to own a smart phone while paying only $19 a month!

Hope you found this review helpful!

Don

 

Is Plastic Card Budget Worth It?

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What is a “Plastic Card Budget”?

Plastic Card Budgeting is a simple (but special) budgeting technique that can help you spend less money, and at the same time enabling you to realize a discount on your purchases.  So quite literally, it’s a win-win!

How Does a “Plastic Card Budget” Work?

At a time frame specific to your buying patterns (usually monthly), buy all of the expected gift cards or refill a special prepaid card at the beginning of each month.  The prepaid card will server the purpose of a catch-all for those purchase that are gift card specific. The prepaid card is usually a debit card that can be refilled with occasionally to cover non-topic purchases.  You will also need to carry at least $100 in cash for emergencies where you can’t used plastic, but you’d be surprised at how far $200 goes since you can use plastic for practically everything.  In fact, I only use cash for two purposes… 1.) Kid Allowances and 2.) this one small restaurant that doesn’t take credit cards that I wouldn’t go to except the kids love the place.

So when I go out to eat with the family, I usually use a Darden’s Gift card (which can be used at Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grill, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52).  Between my prepaid card and my Darden’s gift card, 80% of my disposable income needs would be met.

So How Do I Save Money This way?

Mainly with buying the gift cards at a discount via using my rewards credit card (my Favorite being the Amex Blue Card), I’m able to give myself a decent discount on my future discretionary spending!  Depending on where you buy your gift cards at, and the rewards card that you use, you can save 1%, 2%, 3% or maybe even 5% on your gift card purchases.

This article was provided by AXA Business Insurance.

Bests,

Don

My Portfolio Checkup Challenge – Portfolio Fee Creep

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This past weekend, the blogger Joe at Retireby40 posted an article called: My Overdue Portfolio Checkup, and in the article he states that upon checking out his portfolio fees, they totaled $1,754.91 per year.  (Read his article for a great breakdown on his Portfolio Fee Creep, it’s a great read)!

Coincidentally, earlier in the same week, a friend was complaining about the cost of fees in his account.  He was complaining because he thought that the .8% that his 401(k) mutual funds were charging was too much.  That .8% works out to be $8 per $1,000 invested.  While not exactly low, the fees still didn’t spark my brain into calculating my own fees that I pay for the year in my 401k plan.  After all, we learn in statistics that anything less than 5% is statistically insignificant (joking here!), and since .8% is less than 1%, it can’t be that bad, right?  Wrong!

I figured that Joe had retired, and must have plenty of money to warrant such a hefty fee, and that in my case it wouldn’t really apply.  At least that was until I to broke down the costs of my 401(k) fees in my trusty excel spreadsheet!  Much to my financial horror, I too, was paying over a thousand dollar in fees!  WTF, I haven’t retired and I’m not even close to it in fact!

It was Portfolio Fee Creep!  When I started my 401(k) plan, and only have a little invested, the .5%, after all, on a $5,000 balance that fees only work out to be $25 per year, nothing to sweat if the return is good.  But now the fees totally over a thousand dollars, I’m pissed!  Oh not at the mutual funds companies, no they are not to blame…  Instead I’m more upset with my own lack of focus with respect to the operating expense fees.  You see, I consider myself a finance guy, and for me to ignore portfolio fee creep is just bad form on my part!

So as Joe has challenged me, I suggest that you check to see what your damage might be from your own portfolio fees too?  You might be surprised, I know I was!  Oh, and remember… even in a year when your mutual funds lose money, the mutual funds still take their fees out.  Talk about adding insult to injury!

Bests,

Don

Smart People Are Not Always Financially Savvy People

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Smart people don’t always makes the best financial decisions.  Sometimes smart people are not always financially savvy people!  I’m going to illustrate a few stories below of my personal experiences of such people that I respect that you would think are financially clever, but their past history proves otherwise.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I use to work in the  construction industry during my college days in the summer.  It was good money and actually fun but hard work.  During many a summer, I would work with a John.  This is the guy that I mentioned previously in the article called “Frugally Saving Money By Taking Advantage of an Unusual Opportunity“, in the article I talk about how he threw a deer in the back of his truck that was roadkill, and put in in a freezer at home (after he dressed it…).  Obviously, he was clever and didn’t miss that opportunity that was presented to him.

Plastic Penny

Plastic Penny

Well, the same person had this tendency to go to lunch and have a few beers bought at at bars (along with food to of course).  I was always amazed at how much the bill would be for this (what I considered) huge expenditure for lunch.  Another splurge would be that ever year he’d by the most fancy truck around.  With each year’s truck getting nicer and nicer, to a poor college age student (me), it was mind-boggling!

Now at the same time, every time he would find change on the ground he’d pick it up!  The dichotomy of his financial behavior always had me guessing.  He was a very “fun to be around” person, but also kind of tough.  The other constructions workers would follow the same patterns and the head construction guy.  Each guying newer trucks every other year, and buying the same meals at lunch.  Now a lot of it had to do with the respect of the head guy, but it was a costly respect, at least in my option.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences with John the head construction guy at the construction company that I worked at!

My next story is a bit different.  She was an extremely frugal woman and did a great job of saving money, but I don’t think she understood the effects of either inflation nor the principles of compound interest.  While she would look for the best bargains at multiple stores for grocery items, she never accounted for her traveling expenses.  Instead of investing her money in mutual funds, she would hid her money at home, and I believe even under her mattress (only a few thousand under the mattress though).  Some times if you had a keen eye, you’d see the corner of a dollar bill sticking out of a hiding place.

While she was a great saver, and definitely had some money, it will never be as much as she could have had is she had invested that money in money making assets and investments.  She definitely had part of the equation down, and should have more money in the long run than John “the head construction guy”, but she will never have as much as she could have had if she made her money work harder be investing that money in safe investments.

Both individual above, while not college education are very smart people.  If you met them, it’s pretty obvious, but without understanding basic financial principle they both will never have as much as they could have had if they had a basic financial education (or read pf bloggers).

I hope you found my stories interesting, if you has any story you’d like to share in the comments, please do!

Bests,

Don