You may be curious as to how I keep track of my net worth updates. It’s actually highly manual and nothing fancy. I simply log into Yodlee account aggregation via Bank of America’s MyPortfolio and copy-n-paste the appropriate balances into this simple Excel spreadsheet file. Then I make a screenshot and post it online. This way, it only takes a few minutes – I don’t have to log into 12 different websites, I have a permanent copy for my own records, and I don’t have to write any HTML.

The net worth progress bar on the top right of this page is also made manually with a graphics program (I’ve migrated from Microsoft Paint to Macromedia Fireworks). If you are looking for something automatic for your own site, try this progress bar image maker or run a search for “percentage bar javascript”. Hope that helps!

NCN shares a list of things he actually does to save money. Maybe you can pick up a few ideas.

If you are looking for more about online lending at Prosper, Lazy Man is starting his Prosper Week. He started by addressing some parts of my Prosper Review.

Mighty Bargain Hunter has a multiple-part review of the book Debt Is Slavery and how stuff will imprison you. It’s amazing how much junk I’ve accumulated after living in a house with a huge basement.

Got a crockpot? Trent shares some of his essential recipes. Am I the only person who doesn’t have one of these things? I don’t think I can handle any more kitchen appliances. Maybe if I throw away that old sandwich-maker…

Sometimes trying to save money can be tricky. Have you seen those places that offer $100 brake repair and a lifetime warranty? If you couldn’t smell the cow dung from a mile away, Golbguru has shared his own experience. Hint: It’s never just $100. That reminds me, our Nissan is nearing 100,000 miles as well.

HSBC Bank is offering a $25 or $75 bonus for opening one of two types of checking accounts with them. This may be a good complement to their 6% HSBC Direct account (my opening review). Your two options:

Interest Checking ($75 bonus)
– To avoid fees, you need to keep $3,000 in combined balances, or simulate direct deposit with an ACH transfer from another bank each month. HSBC Direct balances count toward the $3,000 requirement!

Free Checking ($25 bonus)
– No monthly fees, no minimum balance, no direct deposit requirement
– You do need some sort of checking activity every 3 months, or you’ll be knocked down to Basic Banking checking, which does have fees.

Both offer:
– HSBC Debit MasterCard? Card with PayPassTM
– Free first order of selected wallet-style checks
– Check-writing ability, and thus the ability to link to banks like Capital One 360, Emigrant Direct, etc.
– ATM access to money and free Online Billpay
– Possible branch access to people who live near one.
– Instant Transfers between Checking and HSBC Direct accounts, and thus possibly avoid HSBC’s longer transfer times.

I recommend opening an Interest Checking account first, and either keeping $3k in HSBC Direct or simulating direct deposit for a while to grab the bigger $75 bonus, and then after 6 months downgrade back to the Free Checking account. I did this myself with a previous bonus offer with no problems. Fine print:

HSBC reserves the right to charge your checking account an amount equal to the bonus if your checking account does not remain open for at least 180 days. Limited to one (1) cash bonus per household. Offers expire April 10, 2007 and cannot be combined with any other offers.

See, this is why I don’t go to the mall. Even though we don’t like pet stores and the associated puppy mills, we came perilously close to buying another puppy today. It looked very similar to this little dude (We already have a Cavalier).

(image from CuteOverload)

Impulsive means you woke up that morning without any plans to buy something, but by the end of the day you had it in your possession. Mine was probably a laptop that was “too cheap to pass up”. Leave the fun details in the comments 🙂

Everybody loves hearing success stories. I certainly do. And I know that many of you readers have some great tales to share…

• Did you start your own business?
• Did you crawl out from under a mountain of personal debt?
• Did you overcome hurdles (illness, tragedy, divorce…) to reach financial stability?
• Did you switch careers?

If so, I would like to interview you either online or via telephone. I’ll ask questions like – What did you start with? Who/What inspired the idea? How did you do it? What outside help did you have? What tools, software, or services did you use? What was the most helpful advice you received? What was the most unhelpful advice you received? Any regrets?

Alternatively, you can submit something to me in writing. Please include as much detail as possible. Either way, toot your own horn and contact me! I can keep it completely anonymous if you’d like.

Speaking of business cards, check out this one I found:

If you can’t read the sentence on the back, it says:

This card waives the setup fee for your first paycheck advance. Call us to set up your consultation with our financial advisors today!

My head hurts.

Queercents offers some tips on choosing a tax professional. It’s always interesting to see tax advice from an actual accountant.

No Credit Needed explores the differing attitudes towards debt amongst personal finance bloggers.

This week’s edition of the Carnival of Investing is available at Stock Market Beat. If you’d like to host please visit the main Carnival page.

In anticipation of March Madness, Free Money Finance is gearing up for a tournament bracket composed of blog posts. Readers can participate to choose the winners and get some prizes. Time to start studying that bracketology!

If you can’t get your fill of financial talk, mosey on over to the Carnival of Investing (Monopoly Edition!), Carnival of Debt Reduction, and the Carnival of Personal Finance. Here are a few that stood out:

Looking to learn from someone who’s had some bumps in the road and still has a great attitude about it? Check out BloggingAwayDebt.

Searchlight Crusade has some tips on how to avoid vampire properties. I wish house inspections were done upfront by a third-party and shown to all interested parties. The fee could just be picked up by the eventual home-buyer.

MyPocketChange tries help figure out how long do you need to leave your money in the market? Don’t miss the graphs, they say it all.

My wife and I are both job-hunting, and I’ve been thinking a lot about careers in general. I also recently watched the movie High Fidelity. If you haven’t seen it, there is a scene where John Cusack has a list of his top 5 dream jobs if “qualifications, history, time, and salary were no object.” After going through them, he realizes that he is already doing one of his dream jobs, owning his own record store. So I wondered, what are/were my dream jobs? Here they are, sorted by era, along with why it didn’t work out.

High School – High School Math Teacher
High school was where I first realized that good teachers can change your life by showing the beauty in a subject. Seriously. I also tutored some math and ACT/SAT students, and it was very rewarding. The problem? I was afraid that I would feel more like parent than a teacher, and I don’t have that kind of patience. Also, let’s face it, the pay is horrible.

College – Professor of Physics [at a small liberal arts college].
I still think about this sometimes. I love physics, also in large part to a great teacher. Besides the difficulty in getting the degree, the number of Physics Ph.Ds churned out every year compared to the number of tenure-track positions available is insane. You need to graduate from a top school to even have a chance. On top of that, you would have no power to choose where you lived. If a position opens up, you had better take it!

Corporate Worker – Optometrist
I have to admit, this was a very selfish choice. I was tired of feeling like an under-appreciated worker bee, and I wanted out. Being an optometrist seemed like the best combination of salary, autonomy, and quality of life. I really have no idea what the true life of an optometrist is like. It also would have required a lot more schooling and tuition.

Currently – Own My Own Educational Software Company
See a theme? I think that educational software is going to be a huge field in the future. We need to improve how our children learn. If the government doesn’t support this, then pro-active parents will buy it themselves as a supplement. You already see this in many areas, such as the SATs. I still have a ton to learn before I can achieve this, and my dream job may change in the meantime, but there you go.

So, what’s your dream job? (Pro athlete or big-inheritance aspirations aside.) It’d be especially awesome to hear from people actually doing their dream jobs.