I got a tweet from a member of USAA's Social Media group, and she wanted to know if we could help her out with an upcoming magazine issue! I don't fit the bill here, but maybe one of you do? If so, holler over and I'll put you in touch with her. Then you can buy me a beer for making you famous :)

"My lovely colleague is looking for a USAA member who's willing to share his or her story about being forced to move for a job, marriage or other life change during one of the worst housing downturns of the past few decades. Or, vice versa, were forced to stay put when they wanted to move."

Labels: USAA

This is GREAT news for anyone who's ever wanted to join USAA :) Consumerist "broke the news" on Monday (although one of my favorite twitterati, @AskJune_USAA, says it's been around for a while?), and I checked out their site and indeed it's true! The stars have aligned and USAA is now open to the general public.

Non-Military folks don't get access to *everything* they have, but pretty damn close. It would be enough for me to change over if I was unhappy w/ my current getup! Here's a list of everything via their Become A Member link (at the bottom under "Other Individuals"):

USAA's investment products, most bank deposit products, life insurance, and shopping and discounts are available to other individuals. While auto and property insurance policies are not available due to membership eligibility requirements, we can still help. USAA's General Agency has a 20-year relationship with Progressive insurance.

The following products are available to other individuals:

Product	Availability
Insurance	Life insurance Auto insurance not available through USAA. Please call 1-888-870-8096. Property insurance not available through USAA.
Banking	Checking Teen Checking Savings College Checking Certificates of Deposit (CDs) CD IRAs Youth Savings Prepaid Card
Investments	All products
Shopping and Discounts	All products

I can't tell you how excited I am for this! Seriously, It's like getting asked out by Megan Fox (only dorkier). If you've ever wanted to join, or know of anyone who does, now's the time baby! Get ready for awesome rates, plenty of options, free* atm withdrawals!, and the most important: Excellent customer service. I've probably called them at least 100 times before, if not more, and only once was I surprised with bad service. I'm telling you, they rule. And I'm not getting paid to say that (though that would be nice! haha...).

There really is a reason I have 15 accounts with USAA - they know how to rock the business. We have our savings (2), checkings (2), roths (2), money market, credit cards (2), heloc, insurances, etc, and I'll continue using them for as long as they'll let me ;) But ask around and learn for yourself. If anyone reading uses USAA, what do you think of them? Are you happy?

Whether you use USAA or not, just know that it's now an option. That's really the point of me expressing my undying love for them here. If you're completely satisfied with what you've got, great! Leave it alone and be happy. If not, might be worth checking out?

------
PS: Major thanks to donkee for the heads up on this!

*USAA does not charge a fee for the first 10 ATM withdrawals and refunds up to $15 in other banks' ATM usage fees each month. A 1% foreign transaction fee applies to withdrawals outside the United States.

Labels: awesomely awesome, banking, insurance, USAA

Yep, not even my beloved USAA can save us from this one. Apparently we're TOO under water to refinance. Since when is $60k in the negative TOO much? ;) haha...ah well, it was worth a shot.

But what's really frustrating, if you'll allow me to say so, is the fact that there are, indeed, people who can/will be able to refi because they made some huge boo-boos.

That's great for them, and certainly for our economy in general, but what about the others who behaved and played by the rules? Shouldn't WE be granted some help as well considering we also took it up the a$$? This affects more than the people who helped us get in this mess to begin with. (emphasis on *helped* here as we all know there were many other factors stirring the pot.)

The Mrs. and I aren't perfect little badgers, but we should still be granted some sort of equal rights. We pay our mortgage on time, we didn't get too over our heads, and we were responsible. Shouldn't that count for something? Are we being greedy here? Whatever....I'll go ahead and stop now. I'm sure everyone's tired of hearing about this stuff. I just had to get it out since it's directly affecting us now.

I'm just hoping Mr. Obama has something good up his sleeves...

Labels: crazy economy, home ownership, mortgages, rant, USAA

Yup, just opened up my very own Brokerage Roth IRA with USAA today! And, as usual, it went swimmingly. They answered all my questions, took the time to explain everything to me, and even opened it up 1-2-3 over the phone for me. Total call time? 14 mins. 37 secs. (hotness!)

They even helped me to xfer my target mutual funds from my regular Roth into this new Roth, allowing me to keep everything into one account! I'm telling you, I really should work for that place - I've now technically got 13 accounts opened with them! haha....although i'll drop the other Roth here shortly to keep things nice and clean.

So, why the big move now? To purchase those stocks I was talkin' about the other day! Yup, I figured the only way I'll be able to play the game correctly is to consider these new stocks as "retirement" funds. That is, I pick them up and then keep them for a while instead of buying and selling all over the place. And for ME, that means having them live in my Roth IRA.

Up until the other day, it never dawned on me that I could purchase individual stocks and keep them in my Roth account. I was just so used to thinking about mutual funds when it came to retirement accounts (cuz that's what the media and every other person out there talks about). But, with a Roth IRA, You can invest in anything you'd like! Mutual Funds, individual stocks, cds, money markets, you name it. The Roth is just your vehicle to get you there, sorta like a "catch all" account for investing.

The thing was, however, was that the original Roth I initially set up was only made for mutual funds, so I had to change it over into a "Brokerage Roth" in order to have trading capabilities as well now. From this one account, I can now choose whatever my heart desires :) All under the same imposed Roth Limits of course.

But what's even MORE awesome is that I don't have to worry about the taxes from it all!!! I don't know about you, but the idea of dealing with taxes in itself is enough to steer me away from investing sometimes :( But since the money flowing into this account is already taxed by Mr. Obama & crew, the need to hit 'em up again goes away! When it's time to cash out 30 years from now, all deposits & gains will be 100% tax-free :)

Needless to say I am one excited little puppy over here. I've got the game plan all set up, the mechanism now in place, and now all I need are the right stocks! haha...that's all.

---------
PS: In case you're wondering, and I know a few of you are, the cost for each trade placed with this Brokerage Roth @ USAA is $11.95 - a lot higher than Sharebuilder, E*Trade, and some others. Since I'll only be placing a few trades each year though, it's not that big of a deal for me. I'd much rather have all my accounts in one place and easily accessed :) Oh, and I pay no monthly fees.
PPS: Here's a pimp list of the "best brokerages" out there if you're interested in checking some out.

Labels: retirement, roth ira, stock market, USAA

I don't know about you, but i'm alllllllllways forgetting to update my accounts when I get a new credit card #. (Don't care? click here)

It really sucks to be honest, and it makes me wanna bang my head upside a brick wall - even if it does cost me $1. But I guess it's just one of those things we have to deal with in life.

I bring this up now because USAA just had a "data compromise" in one of its divisions (they say it due to a 3rd party), but either way it means they had to send me a new card with a new #. This may not be that big of a deal for some people, but I use my credit card for everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrything. Which means I now have to update allllllllllllllll my accounts that's attached to it! (why do I keep typing like thaaaaaaaaaaat?)

That brings us to today's topic: The list of places to update your credit card information. Originally I only thought of 2 or 3 places to update this new #, but as the days passed (and my charges kept showing up on the wrong card) I realized there are a ton more places I was still missing! haha....so my hope is that this will not only be a nice reminder for you all, but for myself as well during the next round of updates ;) Here's what I conjured up so far:

• Overdraft Protection - Do you use your card as a back up so you never get overdraft fees from your checking/savings accounts? If so, this is probably the first place you should update. It's pretty embarrassing going in the negatives to begin with, but to then have your credit card decline directly after?! Bleh, no thanks.
• Paypal - Both your personal accounts and/or your business ones.
• GoDaddy - Or any other of your web/domain name hosting sites (for you bloggers out there)
  
• iTunes - Sure they're just .99 charges, but they still gotta get paid!
• UPromise - Somehow I remembered to change this before most others on this list. wtf? I never go on there, and when I do it's only to see if i beat my record income of $7.08 ;)
• Comcast - Their website blows, but luckily you never have to log on except for times like this - as long as you have your bills automatically set, which I highly advise.
• Cell Phone - Yes, very important if you like talking and all....
• Netflix - Don't use this personally, but 99% of you do!
• Gym Membership - Another one I don't use, but this time I'm in the majority ;)
• Other Subscriptions - Magazines, clubs, organizations, nudie sites (!), etc.
• Toll Tag - I totally forgot about these since I stopped using on a couple years back. But it's certainly one for the list for those who do use these still. (Thanks Philip!)
• Corporate stuff - Such as your corporate travel agent or any other services/items you use @ work and/or things you need for reimbursements and the like. (Thanks Shtinkykat)

That's all I've come up with so far. If I'm missing something big here, do tell! I've crossed this off my to-do list now and it's about to be emptied out of my brain. There's only so much I can keep in there at a time ya know ;) Enjoy the day over there hookers...

----------
ps: Yes, of course I still love you USAA! You = My 2nd Love.

Labels: credit cards, USAA

Yup, even my beloved USAA is fighting the good fight these days. Got a nice little letter in the mail yesterday (which may, or may not, have been cleverly disguised as junk mail) stating there will now be a minimum annual interest rate set @ 6.00% starting in Feb, 2009 :(

It's certainly not the worst thing in the world, but that doesn't mean i have to like it. Currently I have two credit cards that are set at "prime", which as of 2 days ago just dropped again to 3.25%!!! It won't remain that low forever, but it still means this new minimum will now be DOUBLE.

The good thing here is that I don't have any balances right now on either card that would be affected by this. Here's a quick snapshot of both cards, and what their used for and all:

• Card #1 - the "House" card: $25,000 limit with a fluctuating balance. We put all household expenses on here (utilities, groceries, etc), and then pay it off in full each month.
• Card #2 - the "Auto Loan" card: $30,000 limit with a locked in 3.4% rate for 1 year. This is how i financed my old school cadillac ;) I knock off around $500 a month so the balance is slowly going away. Currently it has a $4,000 balance.

So right now we're fine...i'm just REALLY hoping that the credit limits don't get slashed next :( I pumped those bad boys up to help our credit scores, but it seems like a lot of companies are slowly cutting back now. Oh well, i don't have much power over it all anyways...

Oh, and i almost forgot!!! The funniest part about this whole thing was when i skipped halfway through the letter and saw, "You may reject these changes between Dec. 6, 2008 and Jan 23, 2009". I was like helllllll yeah, thank goodness i read that b*tch! I'll just opt out of it and be on my merry little way ;) haha...

Until i read the next header which read, "What it means if you reject the changes". Wanna take a guess as to what was in there? It wasn't fun, that's for sure: Your card would get closed down, you'd lose all your rewards/points/etc, and more importantly you wouldn't be able to re-apply for it again. Yikes! And yes, you'd still be accountable for all previous charges you already put on there ;) although it WOULD be at your normal rate, so at least you'd have that going for ya.

The moral of the story is to just read the stuff your bank sends you. It may look like junkness, but that one minor detail you miss might come back and bite you in the a$$ later. As for you USAA, you know i love ya! Can't get rid of me that easily...

Labels: credit cards, USAA

That's right, miraculously we're STILL getting wedding checks sent our way :) I guess that "1 year to give a gift" rule is pretty common these days. Not that i really care one way or the other, i just find it pretty funny. This rule doesn't apply to birthdays, graduation,or Christmas so why weddings?

I asked a couple friends but no luck, they all came back pretty much with "i dunno, it's just the way it is". Okay, so let's just say that's the deal. Why do it though? I mean, it takes a lot of time to make arrangements to go to the wedding, get a hotel (if needed), and schedule your family's life around it cuz of the time it consumes, so the present part should be the easy part, right?

The only thing i can think of is that perhaps it just gets forgotten w/ all this other stuff going on. Or it's just laziness :) I've never sent a late gift myself, but if i did it would totally come down to the lazy factor. But enough of this talk, my word vomit is going wayyyy off track now.

The reason for this post is to give an update on our newest check contenders in our Bank Battle! So here they are:

• USAA moves up a notch to 2nd place with a $200'er (holler)
• Commerce Bank brings in another $50.00
• And PNC makes it a 3-way tie for first, w/ another respectable $100.00!

Ooh, and i almost forgot about the BEST gift ever! A $500 Savings Bond :) Similar to the others in my safe, it's a "Patriot Bond" (EE) worth $250 at the present time, which will work it's way up over the years. I love it! (For more info on bonds, check out the snazzy Treasurydirect.gov site.)

There's just something about those little guys that bring absolute joy to my life. I think it's the whole "you can watch me grow, but you can't spend me!" thing. Fine by me, my other bonds will now have an extra friend to play with. No shame in that game!

So there you have it, our old cash gift total worked it's way up from $6,000 to $6,350, and USAA is battling Navy Federal for the 2nd place title...will it end here? Only time, and laziness, will tell ;)

Labels: banking, bonds, gifting, PNC, USAA, wedding

POOP! What about my USAA? According to all of the wedding checks we got from our friends and family, it only ranks in 5th place :( Turns out most of them prefer Wachovia, Bank of America, and PNC. Oh well, at least we got some extra $$$ to help start our married lives, right?!

This is decidedly a GOOD thing, as our wedding budget had finally burst at the seams, and it's now time to clean it all up ;)

So, being the big dork that i am, i took some time to sort through all of our cash gifts and analyzed the bajesus out of 'em. It's just sooo fun, i love it! Plus, what else do i have to do on Friday the 13th? haha... Chew on these fancy facts:

After counting it all up, we were given a total of about $6,000 $6,350!
- $700 of them were pure cashy cash
- $5,300 $5,650 of them were old fashioned checks.

Here are how the amounts broke down:
- $1,000 was the biggest gift (holler)
- $40 was the smallest gift
- $138 was the average gift

And these are the banks the checks came from (most popular to least):
- 5 @ Wachovia Bank
- 5 @ Bank of America
- 4 5@ PNC Bank
- 3 @ Navy Federal Credit Union
- 2 3 @ USAA Federal Savings Bank (the best e-v-e-r!)
- 2 @ Citibank
- 1 2 @ Commerce Bank
- 1 @ Chase
- 1 @ BB&T
- 1 @ SunTrust
- 1 @ Hudson United Bank
- 1 @ Harleysville National Bank
- 1 @ Bank Fund Staff Federal Credit Union

Wasn't that fun? No? Well you are just too cool aren't ya ;) I certainly enjoyed breaking it all down - especially when it came to banking. There are so many options out there, i wonder what made them choose their specific one. I actually thought we'd have more "military" related banks than the 5 we did (USAA & Navy Federal), so that was interesting.

All i know is, as soon as these bad boys clear (i like to use that term "bad boys" don't i?) we're paying off each and every credit card, and throwing the rest in our House Savings! Bow chicka wa wa!

*Updated: 6-20-08

Labels: Bank of America, banking, gifting, PNC, USAA, Wachovia, wedding

How exciting is that? Okay, well not really i suppose, but being a man who likes doing new things it sure stimulated my brain ;) There's a whole world out there dedicated to credit card xfers, and it's nice to have a little better understanding of it all.

As you can imagine, there are a LOT of variables that take place throughout this process, so here's a quick Q&A session w/ myself to shed some more light (just like my interview! haha...):

1. Why did you have to xfer a credit card balance? Well, GOOD QUESTION! We haven't yet paid off our entire balance for our new iMac we picked up 6 months ago, and up until now the card was set at 0% interest ;) Had to skip out before it went up to 18%!!!
   
2. How MUCH did you xfer? $796.15. We throw $200 against both of our credit card balances each month until they are paid off, but 6 months wasn't enough time for this guy. But it's better than the $1500 it was once at.
   
3. And finally, did you sign up with one of those rock star 0% cards you recently posted about? NOPE. Remember i'm too scared to mess up on it all? haha... it's actually kinda sad as this amount would have been perfect to try it out. I just have too much stuff going on thought right now to spend the time and make sure i do it 100% perfectly.
   

I ended up going with USAA to do it (shocker). I can't help it, they were super helpful over the phone, they had a special 3% rate going on, and all in all i just felt a million times safer with them. I'm just a loyal dog, what can i say ;)

We'll have it paid off within the next few months, so it'll just cost us a few dollars by the time it's done. Big woop - i'd pay that for a healthy mind anytime.

AND, the best part? It literally took me 4 minutes to set it all up - all online! That's some convenience for you. And when i was finished, they hooked me up with some sexy reminders so ill know exactly what's going on:

• Balance transfers are processed as cash advances according to the terms of the Credit Card Agreement and will begin accruing finance charges from the date of posting until the balance is paid in full. (good to know)
  
• Balance transfers requested today will not immediately appear on your account balance. (check)
  
• USAA will process your balance transfer request within 5-7 business days. (yeah, well they have have been eating their Wheaties cuz they had that junk processed in TWO business days! talk about effective.)
  
• You should continue to make your monthly payments to each creditor as long as there is an unpaid balance. (smart)
  
• **Transferring the entire balance will not automatically close your other account. If you want to close the account you will need to contact the issuer directly. (Best piece of advice yet)**
  
• Transferring a balance that contains disputed purchases or other charges may forfeit the dispute rights related to those transactions. (sure....never dealt w/ any "disputed" charges anyways)
  

So, I am one happy puppy. I got to check this item off the list, and got a nifty litte post out of it at the same time :) Not too shabby there USAA - have any job openings for me yet?

Labels: credit cards, USAA

Or in my case, my money clip! I always enjoy these super personal questions. The idea of peering into someone else's life is just so incredibly interesting. It's not like i wanna find out some dirty little secrets or anything, although that would make for a juicy post! haha...but it's more for the feeling that we're all alike on some level. We all carry wallets, purses, money clips, etc, and we all have our own methods and reasoning for doing so.

I was reminded of this curiosity when i came across a post by Canadian Saver covering the simple question: what's in your wallet?

Here's what i pimp:
1) USAA Rewards MasterCard.....for personal spending
2) USAA Platinum Rewards MasterCard.....for all house related items
3) USAA Debit MasterCard.....only used to take out $ from atms (FREE by the way through USAA! any one, anywhere.)
4) Work swipe card thingie.....allows me to get into work...unfortunately.
5) Driver's License.....ALWAYS on me 100% of time cuz ya never know.
6) $28 buckaroos.....oh crap, make that $25! i've been forgetting to put my daily dollars into my cup. Cash is the one thing i continuously get on my friends for. I don't mind lending it, or buying a friend lunch every now and then, but it's really really important for safety reasons! I believe you should always have at LEAST $5-$10 on you at all times...you can't use a credit card for everything.

That's it! i know it's not as exciting as one would hope, but i'm a simple man :) I used to use a wallet but it would collect soooooo much junk. And these days w/ the whole "phone # as your rewards card" at grocery stores, i don't need to hang on to those crazy giant/safeway cards anymore. The only thing i miss having is a picture or two, but these days i can just log onto mySpace and see my crazy friends.

Labels: cash, randomness 3000, USAA

Ever since I was a teen I can remember having a USAA account for car insurance. I never really cared all too much back then, (i wasn't even paying the bills!) but NOW's a whole different story. I am completely proud to use USAA today, and thankful beyond words to my parents for hooking me up.

Why do I heart them so much? Well, they have mad offerings from almost every account imaginable! AND they're a credit union, so their rates are always up in the top.

Do you wanna guess how many accounts I have w/ them now? 12 15!

Here's all that I have through them:

1. Auto Insurance
2. Personal Property Insurance
3. Life Insurance (me)
4. Life Insurance (Mrs. BudgetsAreSexy)
5. Home Owners Insurance *new!
6. Personal Checking account
7. Personal Savings account
8. House Checking account
9. House Savings account
10. Credit card #1 (for personal stuff)
11. Credit card #2 (for house stuff)
12. Roth IRA (me)
13. Roth IRA (Mrs. BudgetsAreSexy)
14. Home Equity Line of Credit (heloc)
15. Money Market account! Newest one as of Monday, to be used as my Emergency Fund.

At this rate, i might as well WORK for them :) The best thing about it all, is that I can log into my online account and see all accounts on one page! This may not sound like a big thing, but i gotta tell you it has helped me tackle my budget a lot easier.

Then we have my favorite aspect, their Customer Service. I've been, and worked, around the block a few times to know when the service is a plus, or a big fat disgrace. USAA's service is A+, and they have plenty of awards to prove it. You rarely have to wait long to get a real live person on the phone (what a concept!), and once you do they are super friendly and actually ON YOUR SIDE. I can't tell you the number of times i've called w/ questions or for general advice, and they've been nothing but professional and competent.

I recently rang them up to check on a pending transaction, and not only did they give me clear and concise answers, but they looked at my accounts and hooked me up w/ a little financial advice that i cold actually use! Remember how i'm trying to get my Emergency Fund back up and running? Well...I have been putting the $ into my savings account and was planning on hosting it there, but USAA recommended using a Money Market account for my Emergency Fund. They have a "Financial Advice" dept. which advised me of the easy online deposits, unlimited withdrawals (unlike savings), and currently the 3.35% yield (also unlike savings). How awesome is that?

They very well could have answered my original question and quickly got me off the phone like any other place...cough cough COMCAST..cough cough...DMV...haha... but they didn't. Their service reps are knowledgeable and intuitive when "selling" their other services. But more importantly, they make my life easier.

USAA, will you marry me?

Labels: banking, emergency funds, money markets, USAA