Dumb Credit Card Offers

I have a Disney Visa because I like the reward dollars and we use the rewards quite often. With the card you get 1% of all charges back as Disney Rewards Dollars. It builds up over time and we use the rewards dollars when we go to Disneyland. But recently I received a promotion from them in the mail stating that if you spend more that $600.00 in a given area (ie. food, gas, entertainment), they will double the rewards for every dollar about $600.00. It is a bad promotion for someone like me who does not spend over $600.00 in any given field and its not like I am going to go out of my way to spend more just to get in the double area. I would understand a promotion like, Double Rewards on all gas bought this month. That would benefit me very much.

Tues 1/23/07 and Wed 1/24/07

On Tuesday I did a short workout on the hardest level on the bike machine. Unfortunately I was interrupted half way through. So instead of doing a 15 min bike ride, I did 1 10 min and 1 5 min.

Anyways
15 minutes on the bicycle burning 152 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 40lbs on the machine incline press

On Wednesday, I did not work out because of my left foot. I went to help my wife move stuff out of her classroom and my foot started hurting. This was the same pain from Sunday that I think was caused by running.

Mon 1/22/07

15 minutes on the bicycle burning 132 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 40lbs on the machine incline press

Since school is starting in exactly a week, this week, I will try to come up with a workout strategy that is only 15-30 minutes. Today's bike ride was a mountain course on a high level so It was tough.

Sat 1/20/07 and Sun 1/21/07

Sorry, my Internet has not been working very well the last couple of days.

My foot was hurting from the run on Friday. So on Saturday, I went for a walk with my wife as my exercise and since my foot got worse on Sunday, I did not work out at ll on Sunday.

Fri. 1/19/07

Today I decided to use the treadmill. Running was a nice change, however, I am using shoes that are about 8 years old and they ended up tearing the back of my right heal. So, I am in a little bit of pain right now. I did like how I could set the machine to be used until I hit a certain calorie mark.

34 minutes and 10 seconds on the treadmill burning 300 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 40lbs on the machine incline press

Thur. 1/18/07

30 minutes on the bicycle burning 272 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 40lbs on the machine incline press

Wed 1/17/07

30 minutes on the bicycle burning 270 calories
10 sets of 10 reps @ 40lbs on the machine incline press

Buying School Books

Today I bought my school books. I drove to the University and got the isbn #s for the books and came home and order online. I have four classes and currently three of them have posted their books. The fourth class is and MIS class and I am guessing that it will have an online text which might cost about $30. But for now I can get the books for the other three classes. For one of the classes I bought the book at the school because it was a bundle with other books. But the last two classes I bought the books through amazon. Amazon is currently having a deal where if you buy at least $150 worth of books from them they will discount $15. However, I found it cheaper to buy the books from the used. Here is how it stacked up:

MBA 230 $112.06 --- $112.06 -bought it at school
MBA 260 --- --- --- -No book yet
MBA 270 $158.25--- $105.55 -saved $52.70
MBA 280 $102.75 ---$38.48 -saved $64.27
Total $373.06 ---$256.09 -saved $116.97 or 32%

Its still a lot but it saved money.

Tues 1/16/07

After yesterday's mountain bike exercises, it took it a little easier today. I was still sore though.

60 minutes on the bicycle burning 378 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the machine pulley

Mon 1/15/07

Today I tried a different program on the bicycle. I normally use the fat burning program, today I did the mountain course. It hurt so much. My muscles burn right now. But the new program burned more calories than than fat burning program.

60 minutes on the bicycle burning 475 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 70lbs on the machine pulley

100 Picture Prints From Winkflash For .99 Shipping

Found at Fatwallet.com. Click this link and you can get 100 picture prints from Winkflash for just .99 shipping. Enter code: CA59WT43 Deal is for new customers only

How to break an addiction: Ebay

I love to go on eBay. I shop there in spurts. I can go for a period of time and bid on stuff and then I can go for periods of time when I do not even go on eBay. EBay is a good place to make money by selling old belongings or to find artifacts that just can not be found in stores anymore. But when you get addicted like I sometimes do, I remember something I learned in my last class. Its called the winners curse.

The winner's curse is a phenomenon akin to a Pyrrhic victory that occurs in common value auctions with incomplete information. In short, the winner's curse says that in such an auction, the winner will tend to overpay.

Now every time I go to place a bid I have to judge how much I want to spend on the item before hand. I try to stick to that amount too. I believe when you get stuck in the option of where you bid on an item and keep bidding on an item after you keep getting outbid the winners curse comes into play. This game of outbidding will most likely cause you to bid on an item just to have the satisfaction of winning the auction. But if you stick to your predetermined amount you will be just fine. Assuming that you did research on what a fair price on the item might be.

If I think of anymore ways to beat an eBay addictions. I will post later.

The basics of Compound Interest

A dollar invested at a 10% return will be worth $1.10 in a year. Invest that $1.10 and get 10% again, and you'll end up with $1.21 two years from your original investment. The first year earned you only $0.10, but the second generated $0.11. This is compounding at its most basic level: gains begetting more gains. Increase the amounts and the time involved, and the benefits of compounding become much more pronounced.

Compound interest can be calculated using the following formula: FV = PV (1 + i)^N

FV = Future Value (the amount you will have in the future)
PV = Present Value (the amount you have today)
i = Interest (your rate of return or interest rate earned)
N = Number of Years (the length of time you invest)

-from stocks class on morningstars website

Trick Question

Would you rather have $10,000 per day for 30 days or a penny that doubled in value every day for 30 days?




Today, we know to choose the doubling penny, because at the end of 30 days, we'd have about $5 million versus the $300,000 we'd have if we chose $10,000 per day.

Sixteen ways being disorganized costs you money

I felt that this was important. I found it recently. I too am trying to become more organized.

Check this out.

5 things you did not know about me

1. I am a Disney freak
2. I am currently a full time student working on my MBA.
3. I am married.
4. I have a wife that after months of hounding me to workout, my wife seems to not care about her own health and also as long as the bills are paid, she seems to not care about finances either. Hopefully, I can help change this....I got her to workout today (which is a good start).
5. I worked for a year to get my wife through her credentials and now she is working so I can get my MBA.

Week in review: work out

This is the first week that I have consistently worked out. I was able to burn 1571 calories. I believe I have lost about 2lbs total over the week. Which, from what I have heard, is really good. I plan to keep it up and continue this workout. This upcoming week, I plan to start running too.

Sun 1/14/07

60 minutes on the bicycle burning 434 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the machine pully
5 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the seated machine pully
5 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the machine incline press

Today my wife worked out with me too.

Sat 1/13/07

60 minutes on the bicycle burning 398 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the machine pully
5 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the seated machine pully

Fri. 1/12/07

Today I had to do a short exercise due to time constraint.

20 minutes on the bicycle burning 120 calories
6 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the machine pully

Thur. 1/11/07

35 minutes on the bicycle burning 204 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the machine incline press

The last set on the machine incline press hurt so much.

Wed 1/10/07

30 minutes on the bicycle burning 185 calories
10 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the machine pully

Tues. 1/9/07

20 minutes on the bicycle burning 127 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the machine pully

Eat 3 meals a day

I was reading Men's Health and it said that eating 3 meals a day is a way to boost your metabolism. For me, I only eat 2 meals a day. I always skip breakfast. I will try to start to eat breakfast now too.

First Workout of the New Year

OK, so I am not the most in shape person, but I decided to get into a regular workout routine. I recently decided to go back to school full time to get my MBA, I have found that I have a lot more free time than normal. After going through bouts of depression (I do not know if I am over), I have come to the conclusion that a healthy workout routine will help me get out of it. I believe the depression was brought on by not working. You see, I have always worked and held a job, even while going to school I had a 32 hr a week job and now that I do not have a job, I believe that brought on the depression. Working out is supposed to help fight depression. Also, on the plus side looking good helps a person get a job because a good looking person is more likely to get a job over a more qualified uglier person. Anyways, here is what I did today:

15 minutes on the bicycle burning 103 calories
5 sets of 10 reps @ 50lbs on the machine incline press

I will keep a log on this site as to how much I do at every workout.