Tag Archives: focus groups

Wireless Savings!

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Mobile phone and dollar bank notesMy first mobile phone plan (they didn’t call it wireless then) was 15 minutes a month for $8. I kept the phone in the glove box in case of emergency. I mean, who was there to call in 1993?

It’s been a long road from there to today’s “$79 a month 200 meg unlimited text 450 anytime minute nights 4G mocha caramel latte weekend rollover” plans. One thing that hasn’t changed is that the carriers never stop trying to sell you 10% better service for 20% more money!

However, there are savings to be had, according to financial guru Dave Ramsey. Here are some tips from his newsletter:

  • Use Wi-Fi: For email, surfing and texting. I do this every chance I get, it’s free vs. 3G or 4G
  • Skip the insurance: Dave logic – if you can’t afford to replace your phone, you can’t afford the phone to begin with.
  • Negotiate: If you have the patience, fine. I find the phone store too depressing to stretch out the experience by haggling.
  • No contracts: I have done this twice, and it truly is the way to go. If you know somebody who is ditching their iPhone4 for a 5…buy the 4 from him. Used phone = no contract!
  • Read the menu: That is, your phone bill. If you see something that costs money and you never use, get rid of it!

There are more tips at the newsletter (and many other kinds of financial common sense) so check it out.

How about you? Are you happy with your wireless bills? Have any other savings tips? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page. And have a great weekend!

Simplify Your Finances

yoga at sunset #9Go on the web and you will find that there’s an official day, week or month for just about everything. “Talk Like a Pirate Day” (Sept 19) comes to mind.  This week, though, the Official Thing seems pretty useful – or has the potential to be. August 1-7 is “Simplify Your Life Week.”

As Thoreau said, “Simplify, simplify.” Personally, I have always thought it would be…simpler to say it just once, but what do I know? Anyway, you go to one of the semi-official Simplify websites and you will see gems like, “Place an artificial rose on your desk to remind you to stop and smell the roses.” Umm, yeah.

How about some real advice?!? Here you go… Woman’s Day offers “20 Moves to Simplify Your Finances.”

How can we possibly make our finances simple? By knowing the right tricks. Choose to become accountable, and then use every tactic you can to streamline—and destress— your financial life. If you can pare things down in the following areas, you’re well on your way. WomansDay.com

The article has a ton of ideas on simplifying and taking the stress out of Spending, Banking, Bill Paying, Taxes, Credit Cards, and much more. I won’t even excerpt it here.. you MUST check it out.

Do any of these tips speak to you? Got any of your own to share? Let us know at the MindFieldLive Facebook Page!

The Evolution of Cashing Out

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The statistics don’t lie: in business, in government and in our day-to-day lives, we are using fewer and fewer checks, and more electronic payments. The examples are all around us, starting at the top – the Federal Reserve:

In the 1990s, the number of paper checks processed by the Fed (was) 19 billion. Since then, it has only gone down. In 2000 the number was 16 billion; in 2007, 10 billion and in 2011, just 6.8 billion checks – and of those, almost all were electronic images – were processed by the Federal Reserve.  3pointAlliance.com

In fact the volume of checks the Fed processes is only one-third of what it was 20 years ago. Whereas they once had 45 check-clearing centers in the US, now they have ONE. Meanwhile, the cost of processing checks has gone up by 55% in recent years.

So, that’s the spirit behind the announcement you saw on the MindField Online news page last week:

The ability to cash out using checks will no longer be available starting today. Very few of our members still use this service and it has become too costly and unreliable to maintain effectively.

“Costly and unreliable.” What’s that mean? Well, as we said, the cost of processing checks – even when there are NO problems, is rising. When there ARE problems, though, it gets ridiculous. The Post Office loses your check? Someone swipes it from your mailbox? Suddenly, your $5 cash out check costs MindField $20 to replace!

Is this a huge problem? No, but it’s big enough to be a distraction. And, ultimately, it’s an unnecessary distraction when there are so many other efficient, reliable solutions out there:

We continue to look for exciting cash out options to add to PayPal, Amazon, WalMart and Sam’s online options. We are also looking to add some charitable giving options like St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Make A Wish, or Wounded Warrior programs.

In the end, it’s the price of progress. Check distribution is an avoidable expense, and thousands and thousands of companies have realized it. But we want to hear YOUR thoughts:

If you have cash out ideas, please send them to our support desk, [email protected]. We’d love to know which retailers and charities are of interest to you.

Bad Math, Bad Mortgages

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4-out-of-3-people-are-bad-at-math.american-apparel-unisex-fitted-tee.silver.w760h760How are your math skills? Back in school, mine were fine until 10th grade when I started paying more attention to the girl sitting next to me than to my homework. I stalled out in Geometry and never caught up.

And I guess I am not alone. Supposedly, Americans are at the bottom of developed world in math skills. And one study suggests that this deficit may be one cause of all the mortgage problems.

Americans who have trouble dividing 300 by 2 are much more likely to end up in foreclosure than consumers with average math skills, a new study has found. The research is among the first to directly link mortgage trouble and financial literacy, according to its authors. NBC Redtape Blog

Can’t divide 300 by 2? And here I was embarrassed because I never learned quadratic equations!

Anyway, these science nerds gave a test to various mortgage-holders. And their scores directly related to their ability to maintain a healthy credit score. Here’s the test:

  1. In a sale, a shop is selling all items at half price. Before the sale, a sofa costs $300. How much will it cost in the sale?
  2. If the chance of getting a disease is 10 per cent, how many people out of 1,000 would be expected to get the disease?
  3. A second-hand car dealer is selling a car for $6,000. This is two-thirds of what it cost new. How much did the car cost new?
  4. If 5 people all have the winning numbers in the lottery and the prize is $2 million, how much will each of them get?
  5. Let’s say you have $200 in a savings account. The account earns 10 percent interest per year. How much will you have in the account at the end of two years?

It’s alarming, but a LOT of people can’t solve these problems. Number 5 is the hardest. (answers below)

The takeaway is FINANCIAL LITERACY or, I suppose, NUMERACY. Learn your financial ABCs and don’t back yourself into a corner. So lean on your kids to do well in math, because there is always hope. I may have ended up as an English major, but that girl sitting next to me in 10th grade is now the head of the math department at an East Coast university!

Read the article – it’s really interesting. And happy Tuesday!

Answers: 1) $150 2) 100 3) $9,000 4) $400,000 5) $242 (compounded annually)

Summer of Savings

summersaveLast week, we posted a bunch of links to various articles about travel savings for your summer fun. But what if your summer fun pretty much looks like the rest of the year – feeding and clothing your family and trying to make ends meet? Well, you’re in luck. Here’s a collection of bargains you can snag in the summer months. So here is a Summer Savings Links Top Ten –

Wait, there’s 11? What a bargain!

8 Ways to Snag a Summer Bargain

Try the Summer Savings Quiz

Best Swimsuit Deals of Summer 2013

An Early Word on Labor Day Sales

Petite Ladies can Dress for Less

Bargains for Babies

Kid Clothes…for a Bargain?

June Bargains

July Bargains

August Bargains

September Bargains

What do you think? Any good ideas here? Any we left out? Let us know!

Summer Vacation!

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beachAfter putting it off for EVER, I finally booked my summer trip: me and the wife to San Diego in August. Interesting to learn that Delta Airlines has special “comfy” seats for an extra $70 – extra leg room, better cushions, etc. We decided to go for it (it’s a five-hour flight!) I will let you know how that turns out.

Anyway, despite the continuing economic calamity, summer travel is just what we DO in the USA. So, if travel is on your agenda this summer, here are some informative, money-saving links for your perusal.

Summer travel tips from Travel + Leisure

Conde Nast summer travel guide

US theme parks under $50

Places to visit while they are still cheap

National Geographic summer travel tips

USA Today suggests gadgets to bring on your summer trip

Real Simple magazine travel savings tips

US News best cheap summer vacations

And finally…

Summer travel advice: try being nice!

So, what’s on your schedule this summer? Is it business as usual, or are you cutting back? Let us know… and safe travels!

Famous Brand Deathwatch, 2014

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R_I_P_gravestone_TTime to pour a forty on the ground for some famous brands. It’s the annual product deathwatch from 24/7 Wall Street! Say goodbye in 2014 to:

  • J.C. Penney: their identity crisis has been painful to watch, so America stopped watching.
  • Nook: when was the last time a friend told you about their new e-reader, and it WASN’T a Kindle?
  • Martha Stewart Living Magazine: a shame – she’s SO darn likeable!
  • LivingSocial: Groupon ate their lunch  – at 50% off!
  • Volvo: the public has lost its taste for this Swedish meatball
  • Olympus: adding to the list of single-use electronics killed by the smartphone.
  • WNBA: this is still around?
  • Leap Mobile: never heard of them, but apparently the last one standing in the game of mobile merger musical chairs.
  • Mitsubishi Motors: heading to the scrap yard right behind Suzuki.
  • Road & Track Magazine: the owner also publishes Car & Driver, and doesn’t feel the need for two titles anymore.

See any of your favorites here? Probably not – lack of popularity is a big issue here. Any brands you USED to use and then abandoned? Why did you leave? Was it me? It was me.

Anyway, much more cause & effect at the original article, so you know what to do!

(photo: blogs.realdolmen.com)

Wedding Season by the Numbers!

You're going to need more quarters...
You’re going to need more quarters…

Wedding season is upon us, so grab your checkbook (and the form for that home equity loan!) The CNN.com headline says it all: Brides and grooms spent more on their big wedding day last year than they have since the beginning of the economic downturn.

Wedding spending took a dive – relatively speaking – in 2008. Since then it has been slowly crawling back, according to CNN and TheKnot.com. So, let’s take a fun Friday look at Wedding Season by the Numbers – 2013 edition!

$28,427: The average cost of a wedding in 2012…down $1K since 2008

$76,687: Average cost in NYC…the highest

$15,504: Average cost in Alaska…the lowest

$204: Average cost per guest

26%: Number of couples who say “the economy” forced them to cut back on their plans…which is an improvement from 34% in 2009.

25%: Weddings that include shuttle buses between the ceremony and the reception.

27%: the percentage of weddings that include extra entertainment like photo booth or caricature artist – double the previous year!

There are many more statistics at the original story…so check it out!

Is your (or your kid’s) big day approaching? What do you think of these numbers? Let us know! And have a great weekend!

Memorial Day 2013

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Mem Day

Memorial Day soapbox time – bear with me.

I was all set to do one of those “(Holiday) by the Numbers” posts, where we talk about how much we will spend on travel and hot dogs and new lawn mowers this Memorial Day. But my Google search uncovered this instead: a website that accounts for EVERY serviceman killed in conflict since the Revolution. We (I) sometimes tend to forget that honoring these men and women is the entire point of the holiday, as opposed to having Monday off and drinking beer.

MindField Online wishes to thank service members past and present and their families, and to honor those we have lost. As Americans, we don’t always agree on the value of this or that conflict, but you can’t deny the courage of those who put themselves in harm’s way. So, please take some time to visit MemorialDayFoundation.org.

And have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!!

(photo: hellskitchennyc.blogspot.com)

Safe Online Shopping

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shoponlineIn the old days, let’s say 2003, online shopping was the Wild West. You didn’t know whom to trust. Today folks like Amazon.com have really reformed online shopping and made it uniform, safe and secure. But it’s still on us to educate ourselves and shop smart online.

Here’s my not-terribly horrifying online shopping horror story from the old days.

I ordered a laptop battery from a place I had never heard of, but who had a great price. The battery worked great for about two days, and then just died. Like, completely dead.

Knowing I had a two-week return window, I contacted the company’s help desk using the email address from my original order confirmation notice. It bounced back as undeliverable. Somehow, they contacted me anyway and I noticed it was a different email address.

As the return process dragged out, with me never actually getting instructions on how to return the battery, I noticed that EVERY time they contacted me, it was from a different address. Finally I told them, “The rotating email thing is cute, but I totally see that the purpose here is to drag this out beyond the 14 day return period. That’s probably the way you burn people and, if the BBB doesn’t know that already, they’re about to.” That (admittedly limp) threat was all it took to get action, and I got my refund.

I am sure if I had taken the time to read the vendor reviews, I could have figured this out without the headache. But I was blinded by the idea of saving 60 percent! So, again, the point is to educate yourself on the vendor, and some common sense rules of online shopping. Here is your reading list. You’re welcome.