Posted on: October 23, 2008 by Matt
In working on developing my personal finance team I have been trying to roll my old 401K into a new plan with my new financial adviser. Earlier this week I got an email from Jake (my new adviser, who also happens to be an old friend from high school) that he has run into a snag getting a distribution form from Great West Retirement Services (the company that held my 401K). He let me know that he had called them but they refused to help him over the phone and that they did say that they would mail me the forms. Jake asked me if I had seen the forms in the past couple weeks and asked that I call GWRS since I had not.
While on the phone with the GWRS representative I was given a brief history of my account which stirred up a few old memories. He noted that the employer that the 401K plan was under appears to have gone out of business and that they had moved the money into a rollover IRA. The IRA was currently an I-2 and he would be sending me the forms to move it to an I-1 as well as the distribution form to move my account. The concept sounded fairly straight forward and Jake has offered to handle the paperwork for me once I receive it so I think that I am in the clear. Hopefully I can get the funds transferred over in the next month or so (this is one of my small short term goals that I did not list as I thought it was completed).
What really struck me about the conversation with the GWRS agent was not the process to get the funds transferred but the gut wrenching feelings I had at the mention of my former employer. The company went out of business a bit over two years ago now and I have not given it much thought. However when he mentioned the name of the company my stomach tensed from remembering the old feelings of going through being laid off. My last employer was the only company I have worked for and been laid off; I hope to continue on that trend.
I hope in the somewhat near future to put together a post on watching the company sink and going through the lay offs. I learned a lot through the experience (in hindsight anyway) and would like to share a few of my thoughts.
Posted on: October 22, 2008 by Matt
I have been reading a lot lately about the number of people that use pharmacy shopping to get some really good deals including a number of free after rebate (FAR) items. My girlfriend loves shopping at Walgreens due to the selection of interesting and fun cosmetic products and the politeness of the people that work there (at the Walgreen we visit everyone is really polite and friendly). We also find that the store is generally cleaner and easier to navigate than other pharmacy stores in the area. The only problem I have been able to identify so far is that the nearest Walgreens for us is about 15 or 20 miles away in New Hampshire; we generally stop in when we are headed in that direction.
Normally our little shopping trips to Walgreens involve getting a handful of items that are needed around the house and browsing. However our last trip may have changed the way that we shop at Walgreens a bit and may have also addicted us to the monthly sale and rebate items.
Our trip started out normally, I followed my girlfriend around so we could talk and joke while looking at all the cosmetics. I then decided to go up and grab a weekly sale flyer and the monthly rebate booklet. I proceeded to go compare prices on batteries that we needed and peruse the ads. When I caught back up with my girlfriend and asked her “How would you like to get some free foundation?” she looked back at me with curiosity. I opened the rebate booklet and reviewed the details of the FAR items and informed her that I had read online that we could actually make a little money on these items by getting the rebate on a gift card.
She was sold and pretty darn excited about the prospect of having a Walgreens gift card and some free (actually paid to get) some of the stuff on a monthly basis! We spent a good portion of the car ride home discussing how the program works and deciding that the gift card would be hers to spend on a monthly basis while I would keep up on the monthly ads and rebates and file for the rebates.
While my little shopping trip may seem like old news to a number of readers I am excited and view the trip as a success for several reasons:
- My girlfriend has questioned rebate items in the past: On a previous trip to Walgreens I noted some body wash that was free after rebate. When I pointed it out she commented “Who really sends those in anyway.” I replied that I did and she shrugged and commented on how it seems like a waste of time and the company always finds something wrong with the rebate anyway. After this trip and explaining how we can process them online I think that she has changed her tune.
- A number of the free after rebate products she will use: Not only are we making a small profit by purchasing some of the FAR items but they can also replace otherwise costly alternative brands.
- The gift cards will offset some cost of future trips: Like I said, she loves shopping at Walgreens. An free extra $20 per month will help us out financially.
- She is now excited about checking out rebate items: With her looking forward to the next month’s worth for FAR items from Walgreens (along with normal rebate items) I am hopeful that she will start to look at rebates for other items while shopping as well. I also think that knowing I will take the time to submit the rebates will encourage her to keep rebates as a viable saving method in mind.
Finally – the best part is that since our nearest Walgreens is in New Hampshire we do not have any sales tax on the purchases.
Posted on: October 21, 2008 by Matt
Throughout my day I tend to use several free pieces of software for various tasks and have also started using some of them on my home PC. I use some of the software to clean up machines, some to increase security and some to even keep my personal computer from getting all cluttered up. Here is a short list of some of the free software that I use and how I find it useful:
- Microsoft Virtual PC 2007: I could easily devote a whole post to using Virtual PC (VPC) and the many different applications I find for it. Currently I use VPC for the majority of my web browsing and anything related to my blog or completing offers on CashCrate. You do need an operating system available for install but it will run free versions of Linux if you do not have or want a Microsoft OS available.
- Ubuntu Linux: Need an operating system for your virtual PC? Here is a good place to get one for free. Download and use the ISO as an installation source for your VPC. Microsoft Virtual PC allows you to select an ISO image as your virtual CD drive so you can install without a CD.
- OpenOffice: Sick of paying Microsoft up to $300 to have a copy of Office? Well you do not have to anymore! Sun’s OpenOffice provides full compatibility with Microsoft Office formats and is a free download.
- ISO Recorder: One of the most useful utilities I have found. I often use this to create an image of a CD onto my hard drive. After the image is stored I can use a blank CD to restore the image or other tools like Daemon Tools Light to mount the image into a virtual CD ROM.
- Daemon Tools: Creates a new virtual CD-ROM drive that allows you to mount ISO images as CD’s. Very useful if you like to keep your software in ISO format in stead of on CD’s like I do.
- SysInternals: Sysinternals was recently purchased by Microsoft (well maybe it was more like a year ago) but the utilities that they have are extremely useful. There are utilities for processes, disk usage and even system recovery and maintenance (ERD Commander now known as Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset).
- ZoneAlarm: A free software firewall. I have not used this in a while so am not able to provide a lot of the merits. I have moved more in the direction of hardware firewalls.
- AVG AntiVirus: One of the many free antivirus software programs out there. I prefer this one to some of the others and generally find it does an adequate job.
- Ad-Aware: My first stop for spyware removal. Generally does a decent job of removing most basic spyware but some malware still manages to reinstall itself after removal but still worth an initial attempt.
I use most of this software on a weekly if not daily basis (ZoneAlarm being the exception) and find them all fairly useful. Plus they are all free – saving me money as well as my company and clients money when I am using them for work. If you have any questions or would like a more developed “how to” guide on any of the software listed – please just drop me a comment and let me know! I can then plan on getting together a future post on the software that has more depth.
Posted on: October 20, 2008 by Matt
Another weekend has come and gone and I spent it out sick once again. I seem to be getting sick more often than usual this year and I am really getting tired of it. I think that part of the reason is probably that I now live with other people (including two kids) and my immune system is just not up to the amount of exposure I now get.
My most recent bout of sickness started on Tuesday or Wednesday of last week and has continued to keep me down since. I have not been able to think clearly and have not had much energy. I did manage to make it to work all of last week though (mostly because I work from home).
Normally I would probably consider going to see a doctor by now to see if the horrible cough I have is more than a cold but, as I have stated before, my insurance really is not that great. I hope that the results of the upcoming election provide all Americans with some form of increased healthcare or decreased cost. This $2,000 out of pocket before anything gets covered really deters me from getting anything checked out proactively.
Despite feeling ill to start the week I do plan to keep up my posts and am leaning toward adding a few technology (mostly free technology) posts this week. I work full time as an IT consultant and am exposed to a fair amount of free software and utilities that might be useful to everyone out there; I guess we will see. At the very least I will share some of the software that I use to save some cash personally. I will also be travelling back to Denver for work at the end of the week so may miss a post or two, time will tell.
Posted on: October 17, 2008 by Matt
Another week down and it is time for my weekly link roundup. I have been sick most of this week and have had a hard time keeping up on my reading but here is what the list looks like so far:
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