While shopping at Costco yesterday, I was greeted with a peculiar sign:

We bought one bag, which apparently did not require supervisor approval. My weak understanding of all the buzz:

1. Rice prices globally are rising.
2. This is greatly affecting countries like China, Vietnam, India, who are usually great exporters.
3. They may not export as much.
4. US citizens will likely pay more as a result.
5. Big rice buyers like bakeries worried, want to buy lots of rice now.
6. Costco and Sam’s want enough rice to make all their customers happy, so they limit purchases.
7. Buzz from CNN playing this story all day long causes (I think) undue hoarding.

But, why not just raise the prices now? It’s not like a Wii where the price is set by Nintendo. Is this happening near you as well?

More posts from other bloggers that also hopefully made me wiser and smarter:

Millionaire Mommy Next Door reminds us that there is more than one right answer on how to get rich. Lots of wisdom here. While I’m reading all these financial books, I think many people who do get rich think their way is the best way, and the fact that they are rich somehow proves that. It doesn’t!

Mrs. Micah shares what busts her budget. I never though of my hopefulness as costly, but my forgetfulness is definitely up there.

JLP of AllFinancialMatters teams up with his wife to present the five things they want their kids to know about money. Highly sensible knowledge to impart!

SVB’s Digerati Life drops some tips on making 10 ordinary things last longer. It made me feel slightly better about trying not to waste the last of my shampoo by watering it down…

Ginger of GirlsJustWannaHaveFunds discusses mothers deciding whether or not to work after a baby. It’s funny how things change. For a while I was the one who wanted to stay at home with the kids, but now our goals seem to be switched. Hopefully our double-half-time idea pans out. Our financial life test-drive is working out pretty well so far.

More articles from other bloggers:

• Jacob of Early Retirement Extreme explores his minimalist inspirations. I just watched the move Into the Wild this weekend, about a new college grad who abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity, and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. I always like it when people break from the norm, even if I choose not to do it myself.
• Lisa Tiffin has a guest post at Get Rich Slowly about inoculating your kids against advertising. The analogy is great, and may save me a lot of saying “No” in the years to come.
• The Finance Buff explains why he chose a Traditional 401k over a Roth 401(k). I enjoyed his explanation of how your effective tax rate in retirement may be a blend of different tax brackets, often resulting in a lower rate than you might think.
• Singla Ma of Fabulous Financials shares her notes about a workshop for The Professional Woman. After reading this and Suze Orman’s book Women & Money, I have definitely found similar differences in how my wife and I handle things in the workplace.
• JB of Get Rich or Die Trying posted his new monthly budget in detail, all the way down to his Netflix subscription. For the voyeurs.
• Finally, I’d like to congratulate my sister for shopping smart when she found a top she wanted at Gap, but a button loop was broken and it was the last one in her size. Instead of leaving it, or paying full price anyway, she remembered my Home Depot experience and asked politely for a discount… and got 50% off. Now if only I could convince her to open up that IRA on top of funding her 401k… 😉

Here are some posts I found useful while reading my fellow financial bloggers and more:

SingleGuyMoney shares some of his rental property issues. Apparently even buying a home warranty from American Home Shield won’t ease all repair headaches, as it doesn’t cover pre-existing problems (even if they were unknown).

PaidTwice shares why she doesn’t care what her house is worth. I agree in that my housing payment is pretty much set for the foreseeable future. If anything, I want prices to go down. Because that means that my friends might be able to afford a house, and then I can perhaps get a good deal on a second property.

Canadian Capitalist shares his notes from the 2007 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report. It’s actually pretty fun to read, although I do admit I usually get bored after a few pages and have to read it in parts.

The Honest Dollar advises us to avoid the recency bias. Seriously. Can we finally admit that we can’t see 3 years ahead? Just a few years ago the “experts” were saying how the economy is so resilient and earnings are solid and blah blah blah. Now it’s all “recession-proof your portfolio!”. Tune out all this noise!! Nowhere in my asset allocation decision process is there a factor of “does the market look gloomy?”

Jim at Blueprint For Financial Prosperity talks about the Airborne class action lawsuit. High school teacher who “got sick a lot” doesn’t make wonder drug? Shocker!

JD of GetRichSlowly points out another reason to be wary of gift cards. If you have some Sharper Image gift cards – congratulations! They’re useless.

A co-worker sent me this Couch-to-5K Running Plan. Seems like a good guide to get off your tush and finish a 5K if you’ve never done one before. If I was clever I’d find some parallels with personal finance.

In case the last 5 free ways to get your credit score weren’t enough, there’s also the free Credit.com Report Card. It is actually a pretty comprehensive analysis, providing:

• Credit Score Range: This provides a hint of your credit score based on the standard FICO range of 300-850. (You have to pay for the specific number… see below)
• Credit Score Grades: School-style grades (A-, C+) of each of the main factors in FICO scores: Payment History, Debt Usage, Credit Age, Account Mix, and Recent Inquiries.
• Actual Credit Report Details: Your address on file, employer data, total accounts, total credit limits, number of inquiries, etc.

Here’s an example screenshot:

I’ve bought my credit report and score before, and this is the kind of information I would find useful anyhow. I don’t care if my score is 728 vs. 732 vs. 721 since slight changes occur all the time. Note that this analysis is based on your data from the TransUnion credit bureau only. You can upgrade to reports from all three credit bureaus plus actual credit scores for $14.95 per month.

This is a bit late in the season, but if you like to ski or snowboard be sure to sign up for the e-mail newsletter by SlidingOnTheCheap.com. They send out a free weekly newsletter that summarizes all of the specials and discounts offered by each of the resorts in most of the major US ski areas: Lake Tahoe, Colorado, Pacific Northwest, New England, Utah, and Southern California. It saves a lot of time versus tracking all of the changes on each of the websites separately. They also give away several free lift tickets each week, and occasionally get their own subscriber-only deals.

It’s always good to stay subscribed year-round because often ski resorts will sell some really cheap season passes early on in the year. For the Lake Tahoe area specifically, you can also bookmark SnowBomb.

Otherwise, if you are willing to take a gamble on buying some employee freebies or lift-ticket credits, you can either keep your eye open at the resort for scalpers or try on your local Craiglist ahead of time (just search “lift tickets”). We recently saved $24 on each of 4 lift tickets this weekend this way.

Here’s a funny yet educational slide show (alternate link) explaining how the subprime mortgage mess was created through some complex financial trickery and well… simple and stupid assumptions. You know, like (1) housing prices always go up and (2) you can always refinance to another loan. There are a few expletives, but I would rate it PG-13.

Thanks to Kirsten who e-mailed it to me. I couldn’t find an author, but it seems to have been first posted online by The Big Picture.

You may have heard that Stanford University is waiving tuition for students with families making less than $100,000 annually. If your family makes less than $60,000, room and board is waived as well. This is not chump change: Annual tuition for Stanford is around $35,000 a year and housing is $11,000 a year.

What was interesting was the last line: Only about a third of students are expected to qualify. According to the 2006 census only 19% of US households made more than $100,000. For the students at Stanford, approximately 67% of families make more than $100,000. Of course, Stanford is in California where the incomes are higher overall. Still, this information makes me want to know the income breakdown of various community, state, and private schools out there. It will also be interesting to see what Stanford’s make-up becomes after this decision comes into effect.

In an ideal world, such things wouldn’t matter, but it’s quite apparent from this move that it does. Many qualified students don’t apply to certain schools due to high costs, and this will help Stanford get more of those kids. Financial aid may bridge the gap with loans, but not everyone wants to leave school with $100,000 in loans.

Reader Kristina from Arizona has a problem. Well, some might not see it as a problem, but here it is:

On December 7, 2007, I had $2,802.00 deposited into my business checking account at Wamu. A chunk of change I must say. I called the bank to ask them about it and said they would put in search and see if there is a match in the system for anyone with missing funds. They told me that it was a counter, CASH deposit made in Georgia. I live in Arizona and have never been to Georgia. The bank said they would call me when they found something.

So a week goes by and I hear nothing. I call the bank again and ask them about it. Still nothing. Then another week goes by. I call the bank a 3rd time and still nothing and tell me they will do another search. I called today and asked them if they could send me a copy of the deposit slip. So they will be sending it out soon.

I really don’t know what I should do. I know the money is not mine, but what if I never caught the deposit in the first place and used that money? Would I get in trouble for using that money that is in MY account?

The bank has made an error. I think the bank should have to fork out the money back to the person who made the deposit and let me keep the money. OK OK maybe that is a little to greedy. But who wouldn’t want some extra money!

It’s been over 2 months and still waiting.

So what I did with the money for now is put it into my IngDirect Savings to earn a little money on it for the time being.

I would love everyones thoughts on this. Please help!

So a bit of ethics, and a bit of legality. My non-lawyer, non-ethicist opinion is this: It was correct to contact them about it, both in terms of ethics and to avoid any future legal hassles. But I would also document that contact somehow, either through a letter, saved e-mail, or signed acknowledgment by a bank employee. Otherwise, I’d probably do what you did. If someone claims it correctly, they can have it, but in the meantime there is nobody to actually give it back to, so I’d keep it.

Any other viewpoints or suggestions for Kristina? Has a similar bank error happened you to you, or perhaps one not in your favor?

A few weeks ago I was reading an article in Money magazine about a couple who retired at 40. While they do live frugally in relatively low-cost St. Louis, the primary reason they were able to retire is that they each served for 20 years in the military and now receive a pension of $58,500 per year. They will receive this amount, adjusted for inflation, for the rest of their lives! On top of that, they get health coverage forever as well.

Obviously there are some important issues involved in working in the military. A sense of national duty, risk of injury and even death, possibly lower pay, and constant relocation, just to name a few. But let’s just focus on the financial aspects here. I knew military pensions were good, but I didn’t know they started as soon as you retired. I figured they’d kick in at 60 or 65, not right away. How much is that pension really worth? How much would a civilian job-jumper have to put away to replicate it?

Converting A Pension To A Lump Sum
A pension income is essentially what is provided by an immediate annuity. You pay a lump sum, and in return you get a constant stream of payments for the rest of your life. According to the quote estimates at ImmediateAnnuities.com, a policy that provides $58,500 of lifetime income per year starting at age 40 is worth a million dollars. This is without inflation adjustments, as I couldn’t find an instant quote for that. There are a ton of different options to these annuities, and there are tax implications to boot, so I’m just giving a ballpark number here. (You can estimate your own lump sum number by multiplying your desired income by 17.)

In addition, I can’t properly estimate how much the lifetime of health insurance is worth, but it has to be worth at least another $100,000-$200,000. The article lists their net worth at about $500,000, but really it is the equivalent of around $1.75 million for someone with no pension. At 40 years old, that is quite impressive.

Converting Lump Sum To Savings Rate
So let’s take an even million dollars. According to this simple savings calculator, if I assume an 5% annualized return on my investments (after-inflation), to end up with a millions dollars, that would be the same as saving $2,500 every single month for 20 years (in today’s dollars).

One way to to look at this is that their pension benefit was like receiving an additional $30,000 per year on top of their previous income. This is not to say this was any easy path and you have to have special resolve to stay for 20 years, which does not sound like an easy task at all.

I haven’t picked up any other great tips since then, so here are my 5 Romantic Yet Money-Saving Ideas For Valentine’s Day that I posted last year. My wife and I both have long days tonight with work and all, so we’re moving it to another day. Tonight it’s just ice cream and the couch. Hope things go smoothly for the rest of y’all!

Instead of simply giving us higher interest rates on savings account, it seems that the big banks are relying on gimmicks to spur account openings. Here are a few. Most involve some convoluted scheme, but they still include the potential for some profit.

Bank of America: Keep The Change

You’ll need a checking account, a savings account, and a check debit card. If you charge say $4.05 on your debit card, $5 is taken from your checking account, but $0.95 is placed in your savings account. During the first three months, they match 100%, which means another 95 cents will be thrown in by BofA at the end of the year, max $250.

Best case scenario, you get 99 cents for charging $1.01 (or even 1 cent). This has led to many people trying various techniques to max out the $250 bonus. Examples: Pumping $1.01 or $2.01 of gas at a time, buying individual stamps from an automated postal machine, paying $1.01 towards your cell phone bill, or using the self-checkout lane at the supermarket and paying for small items you’d buy anyway. You definitely need to be committed to get $250. 🙂

Wachovia Bank: Way2Save

Again, you have a checking account, a special Way2Save savings account, and a check card. For each check card purchase or electronic payment (online billpay or automatic debit), $1 of your own money is moved to the Way2Save account. In addition, you can transfer up to $100 a month from checking to Way2Save. So the amount of money that can be placed into this account is greatly limited.

The special Way2Save account pay 5% APY over the first year, plus an additional 5% bonus at the end of the year. They even have a handy Way2Save calculator to estimate your earnings. (Be sure to compare against a regular 4% savings account.) People might try gaming this by opening multiple accounts, or making lots of electronic transfers.

Washington Mutual Bank: Savings For Success

You’ll need a checking account and a special Savings for Success account. You can open with up to $500. Then set up automatic monthly transfers from your checking to savings (up to $500 per month) for the rest of the year (11 transfers). You cannot make withdrawals during the first year. Your account with earn from 5.50% to 6.50% APY for a year, depending on your state. People also might try opening multiple accounts for this one.

Biggest catch: This program is limited currently to Texas, Illinois, Georgia, and Washington. The rest of us will have to be satisfied with their online-only 4.25% APY savings + checking account combination.