MY Sidekick vs iPhone vs Android

The cell phone world has been changing at the speed of light over the last five years. The iPhone has revolutionized mobile technologies and Google is pushing the market share hard with their introduction of the Android based smart phones. These phones are very attractive but, to me, their service plans are not.

My current T-Mobile Sidekick plan costs me $39.99 for 600 anytime minutes and free nights and weekends. I have had this voice plan since I started with T-Mobile back when it was Voicestream in 2002. I pay an additional $19.99 for the Unlimited Sidekick Data Plan which includes unlimited email, data, text messaging, and photo messaging. After taxes total, I am looking at a grand total of $70.

If I were an iPhone user, it would cost me $39.99 for 450 anytime minutes and free nights and weekends. I am assuming that I can deal with 150 less minutes than my normal plan for the same price. I am giving myself the benefit of the doubt. Add on $40.00 for unlimited enterprise data services and another $20.00 for unlimited texting messaging services. This equals out to about $100 for monthly charges. My company offers me a 17% discount which brings it down to $83.00 BEFORE taxes. We can figure that taxes will be at least $15.00, so we are still looking at about $100 for my monthly service plan for the iPhone. While the more functionality and access to all the cool applications is nice, it is not worth almost $30 a month more to me.

If I were a new myTouch Android phone user, it would cost me $39.99 for 500 anytime minutes and free nights and weekends. Again, less minutes than I am offered currently by the same company! Add in $30.00 for unlimited myTouch Web Plan and another $10.00 for unlimited text messaging. Grand total for the myTouch would be $80.00, after taxes we would be looking around $90.00, give or take a few bucks. Again, significantly more than my $70.00 monthly dues for the same plan I have had the last 8 years!

It makes an even bigger difference when you forecast the different in monthly payments over an entire year. These other phones would have me paying a few hundred dollars more every month! The bottom line is that when you find something that works, you stick with it. Both the iPhone and Google have developers producing new attractive applications every single day and they all act like a shiny diamond in front of a single female. They all catch my eye, but then I return to reality, aka my pocket, and feel right with my good old Sidekick LX. The only standing in my way between another 8 years with this phone is my future fiancée or T-Mobile not supporting it anymore!

2010 Secondary Income Update

This was my second full year of officiating basketball and I continued to enjoy myself with every game I did.  The best part about this job is that it does not feel like work when I am running up and down the basketball court.  I really feel this is my true calling and the money only serves as icing on the cake because this sport is one of my passions.
Boy did I do a ton of games this season!  My weekends consisted of doing the Catholic grade school games and the normal recreation league games.  I would usually referee anywhere from 8 to 16 games in a Friday through Sunday stretch.  The difference for this year as opposed to last year was that I began receiving a high school schedule this year.  These games took up my Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights and they paid me more (Although I am still waiting for some checks!).

• December - 24 games for $762 - The season started slow, not much high school work and I lost one weekend to snow.

• January -  52 games for $1860 - Games were flying in left and right.  I worked every night this month except New Year's Day!  High school games picked up big time which caused the huge spike in the number of games.

• February/March - 33 games for $1258 - End of the season slow down time where I had a ton of make up games.  I received a ton of last minute phone calls to work the same day.  In this business, people always remember when you do them a favor.

After the season was all said and done, I refereed 109 games for a grand total of $3,987 (with all w2's reported).  I made the habit of opening up a new ING Checking Account to help me keep track of all of my referee money.  The best part about it is that I have not touched any of it.  I could have put it towards my mortgage student loan, but I have all that stuff under control, for now.  While the secondary income stream was flowing for a few months, the season is over, time to look for a new stream.

Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

My name is not "Hov", but I am back on the scene (If you have no clue about this song lyric reference, see the video at the bottom of the article).

I am back! This is going to serve as one of those lame posts where the author explains and justifies why he or she has not been posting at all.  I won't bore you with my lame excuses and drawn out anecdotes today, but I will tell you this much: I was busy as hell!

Over the last month, I had more things on my plate than I could handle, however, I really was not complaining about it.  Referee work has been crazy ever since December 1st, which meant my secondary income stream has been flowing champagne on New Year's Eve!  I experienced a bunch of very long days doing the normal 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM shift and then doing a bunch of basketball games that would have me eating dinner at 10:00 PM.  Again, not complaining at all about that because officiating basketball games do not feel like work to me.

The major thing that I accomplished over the last month was completing my master's degree.  I will be sharing a ton of stories about this over the next few weeks, but my final course forced me to put in a ton of hours dedicated to busy work required by a mindless professor.  I earned a Masters of Information Systems from the school with the largest alumni network in the USA.  Any guesses? 

Call your neighbors, family members, and friends.  Let them know I am back for now.  Hopefully, my 33 subscribers were not too worried about my dissappearing act and will return to reading and chiming in on my rubbish.  I must say, this feels normal hitting the "publish post" button. 

Be easy. 

My Ban on Booze

Happy President's Day and thank you George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for closing the stock market today because that is the only possible way my office closes.  This post is happily coming to you straight from the warm confines of my living room (my parent's technically).  As I was going through my normal Monday morning financial reconciliation process, I found an astonishing development with my budget so far for the current month of February.  I have no yet spent a single cent on any alcohol yet this month!

This is a ground breaking revelation for the first time in my 26 years of age.  You may not believe me, but I actually had this planned out.  Two Fridays ago, I got black out drunk at a friends place the night that the major Nor'easter slammed the Mid-Atlantic region.  I woke up Saturday morning extremely confused with my car buried under 18 inches of snow.  I got extremely drunk at my friend's place that night, but to my credit, we stayed in and drank and did not go to any bars.

My actions that evening forced my to put myself on a detoxification program where I was not going to drink at all till the beginning of March.  Why March?  Well, my favorite day of the year is on March 13th in Philadelphia and its called the Erin Express, the crawl of all bar crawls around St. Patrick's Day.  To my surprise, I have been loyal to my sobriety so far, which is a huge step in the right direction.  Even on Valentines Day, I refused a drink and my fiancee was the only one drinking at dinner, she had an overpriced glass of white zinfandel. 

 If you are reading me for the first time (please subscribe), you probably are thinking "This guy is a jackass and his zero will power if he is writing about being sober for 2 weeks".  Well, you are right, I have very little will power when it comes to things related to partying and alcohol.  While I do not need to check myself into the Betty Ford Clinic, I do believe that even the smallest steps are progress.  Not only am I saving some cash in my wallet, but I am keeping my body a bit healthier.  Stay tuned to see if I can make it to March 13th.  If you would like to make a wager, shoot me an email and put your money where your mouth is!

Top Super Bowl XLIV Commercials

The end of the football season means a few things: The Eagles did not win again and we now have 6 months without football aka depression.  Last night's Super Bowl 44 was an awesome game last night that drew more viewers than people who actually voted in last election (My downer comment for the day). 

I wanted to share my top 3 commercials along with one commercial that I absolutely hated:

3.  ETrade Baby and Girlfriend and Milk-aholic - Nothing like introducing babies involved in Jerry Springer-like love triangles as well as tagging any milk drinker as the new homewrecker. 



2.  Doritos Baby - This one shocked me when it occurred and had me laughing for a good few minutes afterwards.  Something about babies getting physical and talking fresh to someone whose eyes got too comfy!



1. Google Search - I thought of all the commercials last night, this was the most simple, yet most effective.  It told a great story and I am sure connected with a ton of people.  Not that they need to advertise or anything. 




Worst Commercial During Super Bowl - Career Builder Casual Day Ad - Sorry but one too many commercials with men in their underwear just does not rub me the right way!




Only a few of the hours of commercials that we had to chose from last night. 

Which ones stuck out to you?

All Muscle and No Customer Service

 
The people at my gym must not like money.  It is either that or they just do not want to help me save money.  Even worse, they tried to convince me that they were not ABLE to help me due to the technological constraints on their system.

My health insurance company reimburses me $150 if I make 120 visits during the year.  That's like free money for me to go to the gym because I am making out with the free weights on a consistent basis (that's my attempt at stating I go to the gym OFTEN!).  I logged onto my online gym account to find that I am able to view the last 6 months worth of my visits.  So being the great customer I am, I went to my gym to speak with one of the on-site reps to see if I could get my entire year's recorded visits.  Boy were my expectations too high!!

The rep at L.A. fitness printed out a sheet for me that stated I make payments monthly to my gym account and that it is active.  When I informed him of what I really needed, he told me to come back during the hours of 10 AM to 6 PM when the branch manager was there.  So I did so the next day and she informed me that I should revert to my online account to view the last 6 months.  Does anyone in this establishment understand English?  I need an entire years worth damnit!

She then tried to convince me that "The system does active the print function at the required screen."  I asked her if she could take a screen shot and she responded with a blank stare similar to that of any blonde on the old 90210.  I will give the branch manager credit, she was a brunette, but it looked dyed.

Regardless, why is it that it seems that many people whose business thrives on customer service lack common sense, logic, and/or both?

Adventures of the Last Graduate School Course

The end is finally sight and it is really taking up most of my time.

In January of 2007, I apprehensively jumped into graduate studies after finishing my undergraduate degree six months earlier.  Last February, with only five classes to go, I was thinking of putting the school on hold to try and figure out what I really wanted to do.  Instead, the higher ups (aka my current fiancee) put me back on the right track and convinced me to stay with it.  I sure am glad they woke me up.

Twelve classes down and one to go.  All that is left is this final capstone class that involves a ton of writing, reading cases studies, and fairly easy ten minute presentation.  About 3/4th of the people in my class are in the same situation as I am, last class for graduation, so the feeling is shared amongst us that this is the final frontier.  
The only problem is we have a professor who is teaching this class for the first time and he is not very good at it at all.  We have case studies due weekly, as well as written summaries required to be submitted the day before class discussions on the same case.  

Can you say busy work?  I mean one would expect in a graduate level course that professional students would come to class prepared for intellectual discussions on the topic assigned.  Is it really necessary that we summarize what we read?  Do you really want to read 24 summaries?  Actually, ARE YOU going to read all 24 of these damn case summaries?  Professor, if you are reading this, you are wasting my time.

Stay tuned for more on this topic, I feel a hostile diatribe coming to me.  In the mean time, forgive me for the lack of posting because this fool is taking up my reading/writing time with his busy work B.S.  Me getting through this class and landing a grade that my company will pay for will be my way of sticking it to the man. 

Saving vs Paying Down Debt

Take the blue pill.... and you save more money...  Take the red pill... and you wipe out your credit card debt.

The choice is yours.

I always love talking about how I built up my emergency fund a few months ago because I feel that it is an accomplishment that demonstrates the progress I have made to save.  But at what cost did I build up that fund?  How about some interest on the credit card principle over the last few months?

All the money czars out there and their mothers agree that you should pay down your higher interests principles first, and then attach the next highest interest account, and so on and so forth.  If you are getting a higher interest on your investment than the interest incurring on the debt, then keep the money in the savings account.  This is the advice according to all the personal finance experts.

If you read this site often, you know (or might even be 110% certain) that I am no expert at all.  I have tried over the last few months to pay down the principle to $0.00, but it has been an uphill battle.  While I have made progress, it is time to take extreme measures and get this damn principle out of my life like that old stalking ex-girlfriend.  OK I lied, I don't have an ex-girlfriend that stalked me or even an ex-girlfriend.  All I have is a fiancee and my goal is to be in an attractive financial situation by the time I say "I Do" this upcoming July.

I am cashing out some money out of my savings in order to pay down the credit card debt.  My ING online savings account is giving me some interest rate.  I don't even want to call it an interest rate because it is minuscule (Insert "That's what she said" joke here).  Michael Scott would agree, paying down debt is the smart way to go.  Literally, the money in my savings account has just been sitting there, not doing anything, not even generating much interest.  Rather than collecting $5.65 per month on my principle of $5,000, I am going to take out a short loan, from myself, and say bye bye to the bad principle.

A wise decision on my part?   Or am I ignorant to the power of my minimal money market fund?

There are two sides to every story and maybe I could handle this a bit differently, however I am moving in the right direction by cleaning off the credit cards.  I just have to keep it that way.  

December 2009 Net Worth Update: Up 34%

Even when things are really bad, you can always find a way to put a positive spin on it by just looking at the raw numbers.  That describes my net worth in a nutshell.  There is such a large amount of debt in there, however, certain things caused the debt to decrease this year that shoot my overal worth in the right direction.

The main debt is the student loan(s).  One is private for $72,500 and the other is a federal loan for $22,000.  Since I am in graduate school part time, the federal loan is in deferment until I am done.  The good news is I have one class left for my master's degree.  The bad news is that I have to start making payments on this loan now since my enrollment status has fallen below the minimum of 6 credits per sememster.  Those two loans consist of almost 90% of my liabilities. 

As far as my assets are concerned, my retirement account is the engine behind that force.  It rebounded extremely well this year after going through the market crash of the last 18 months.  It is back to a respectable level after a 48% annual return for 2009.  Not too bad.

I am contemplating moving some of my cash towards my credit card debt to clean it off to $0 and hopefully keep it that way.  I find it much easier to save up money when I do not have credit card debt, rather than pay down credit card debt slowly.  Wiping it from my savings and then building the fund back up again might just be my answer.  Thoughts?

How does your Net Worth look for 2009?

Year End Work Reviews: Expect the Unexpected

Sometimes you just have to accept whatever happens because the more you dwell on it, the harder it is to get over.  Whether it pertains to financial decisions, love, life, or in my case, work, the only way to grow in the future is to learn from the present.  Class is in session.

I had certain expectations going into my review that I was to get promoted.  My boss and I had discussions over the latter part of this year and I really felt strong about getting the bump.  Then reality set in and I actually had my year end review and the following words were spoken in my direction:

"We didn't feel that you did enough visible and complex work".

I was totally shell-shocked.  I did not even know what to say, so I just sat there and made it seem like I was listening, all the while, my mind was racing over everything I worked on the last year.  I will never agree nor fully understand the corporate world's evaluation of visible work.  Something could be visible to everyone in the company, but the easiest task in the world.   Other times we could work on something so complex, yet only the company mime knows of your efforts. That's the corporate world right?

I work in a support role for our company's enterprise data, meaning when applications break or incorrect data appears on our website, I have to fix it.  Whatever tasks come in through the pipeline I handle and shoot the solutions right back, regardless of complexity.  However, if the issues linger too long, then they become visible because stuff is broken.  I could defend my case for hours and hours and eventually you would just unsubscribe from feed.

The point of this piece is not for me to sit here and rant and bitch about how all the work I did warranted a promotion.  I know deep down inside I deserved it.  The main point for you to take away from this is take control of your career.  Make people understand the work that you are doing and how it impacts the big picture.  A few of my coworkers call it "faking the funk" but it could not be a more poignant description.  You could be working on something so simple that a caveman could do it, but if important people really believe that your actions impact their bottom line, then that is visibility.  These are the skills that I lack.

The bottom line is that you own your career.  Only you can control the gatekeepers of the next level that you are worthy of acceptance into heaven.  Do not let the corporate mumbo jumbo cloud your evaluation of yourself.  When it all comes down to it, look yourself in the mirror and ask if you really did do everything possible to convince these hypocrites managers that you deserve the world's riches.  If even one doubt comes into your mind, then you did not cover all avenues.

You could go a year straight of meetings with your boss and have rave reviews the entire year, but then they will pull that card out, that one doubt you had that your superior never mentioned all year.  They will use that card like a blackjack dealer showing an Ace.  You know you are set up for disappointment.  The dealer turns over a king, dealer has black jack, dealer wins.

Don't let your company gamble with your career, take control of it yourself.