Do you have all your investments through one firm?

Who do you use and why?

I am trying to streamline things so it it easier to keep track of, is this wise?

Wow, spent $26 for $99 worth of stuff tonight. I even impressed myself!!!!

Okay. I opened up a 529 account to get the cash out of the UPromise account.
I opened the Iowa College Savings 529. I was able to open it with $25 and don't have to contribute if I don't want to. But, the money that was in my UPromise account will be put into the new account.
So, with the $25 I added in the $173 that was just sitting in that account. Each time the UPromise gets to $25 or quarterly they will add more to my account.
So, for a $25 investment I thought that was the way to do it.
But, I will continue to save for the kids in my Roth.

Went ahead and opened up an account to get the more than 16 percent ROI.
The account was really easy to open and took no more than 15 minutes. Easy money.

Suze Orman says to save 8 months of emergency cash. I currently have 3 and feel more than comfortable.
What do you have?

Bought the new Suze Orman book. I just couldn't resist. She was the first personal finance book I read many years ago. Back when we had credit card debt. I give her the credit for how far we have come. I think she's great for people who are just learning.
I bought the book because I figured I would take advantage of the TD Ameritrade free $100 if you make 12 -- $50 monthly contributions to a new account. That is a great return with no risk involved.

Have a UPromise account that has been accumulating free money. I didn't want to open a 529 plan a while back because you had to contribute every month. I don't really want to put anything in the kids names, as I think this will hurt their chances for aid when the time comes.
But, I noticed last night that the Iowa 529 doesn't make you contribute monthly. So, I am thinking of opening one with the money that is in the Upromise account and putting the account in my name.
At the present, my plans are to use money in my Roth to help the kids with college expenses. Although, I don't think we will fully fund their college, as I find that people that do that, their kids take it for granted and don't give college their all.
Any thoughts?

Changed my electric and cable bill to Citi Dividend card to get the 2% cash back reward. Previously had both billed on another card and was only getting 1 %. So I was getting approximately $48 back a year, now I will be getting back $96 back. Not a lot but the way I see it it's free money. Need to check with the utility company and see if they will let me pay by credit and get the 2 % from that too.
Bummer, though with Citibank they cancelled the 5% back on gas, groceries, and drug store. (I just got this notice)
But, we have another card that is still doing it until July of this year. So, I will be using that card for those purchases. It's not a cash back card but the 5% gets added up for a year and than sent to our mortgage company.
I went through all our rewards cards and made an updated list of which cards to use where to get the most cash back.

Checked out this calculator on Smart Money
and found out that with the amount we have saved, if we didn't save any more - and made 8 percent interest on what we have so far -- we would have $26000 a year income in retirement.

Obviously, we are going to keep on saving, but it was interesting to see. Oh by the way, that was not including social security. Which I don't count on.

Okay. We took a nice beating yesterday. But, all seems to be doing all right today. It's time to take this opportunity to buy low.

This is pretty neat. Restaurant.com you can buy $25 gift certificates to restaurants for $10.

I checked it out for my area and it seems like most are the newer restaurants. Since I am a picky eater and we don't go out to eat that often -- we tend to stick with our favorites. But, I figured I'd throw it out there for everyone else. It's a great deal if you don't mind trying out newer places.

Wow, what a great tool they have on this site for checking to make sure you are on track with your retirement savings. I read about it in the newest Money magazine. So I did a quick check and we are right where we should be. I will go in again another time and make sure my estimates for what we will need monthly are right.

I don't carry a lot of cash. I don't even own a debit card. I use my cash back credit card for most purchases.

Although, I use my credit card like a debit card. Which is to say that when I make a purchase I subract it from the checkbook. When I get the bill, I simply add up my highlighted items in the check register and write a check to the credit card company. I found this to be the best way for me. No surprise credit card bills or dreading opening the bill and cash back is the icing on my cake. (which makes a nice Christmas Savings account)

Can someone tell me where to find out more about the $20 challege. I get bits and pieces of information but wanted to know more about it. It sounds like something I already started this year on my own. Basically, putting back found money that I wasn't counting on. Thanks.

I recently received a bill for my subscription for the Sunday newspaper for $138 for the year. Which breaks down to $2.65 a paper. Humm, the paper only costs $1.50 to buy at the store. This was a 77% markup. I always thought that when you subcribed you got a better rate since the company could count of your purchase.

So, I called customer service and told them I wanted to cancel my subscription because the rate was 77% higher than what I would pay at the store.

She than gave me the "half-price" rate. So I got a year subscription for $69. It pays to call!!!!!!!