I’ve been remiss in my shoutouts to all the other personal finance writers out there. Believe it or not, Punny Money is not the only personal finance website on the internet. Yes, it’s the best one, but it’s not the only one. That said, there’s still plenty of fairly awesome personal finance writing out there, so here are some of them that you’ll find is Stuff Worth Reading.

1. If you’re stuck with a home that’s worth less than your mortgage balance, Advanced Personal Finance can tell you how to short sell a house.
2. Looking to move up a step on the corporate staircase? So is Cash Money Life who explains how he plans to get promoted.
3. Clever Dude wants to drive a car made out of cake. You better garage it or you’ll have Nick-sized bites missing from your bumper.
4. According to Consumerism Commentary, realtors, actors, and bankers lead the list of jobs that get no respect. Fourth on the list: your job.
5. FinancialDominance.com is addicted to crack–I mean, caffeine. Good luck; it’s a hard habit to kick.
6. Gather Little By Little offers seven awesome moving tips. My own personal tip: don’t fill cardboard moving boxes with gravy; it’s not as fun as you might think.
7. Apparently you can learn a lot about investing from golf, according to Moolanomy. Bonus tip: smashing your golf club may alleviate frustration on the golf course, but it’ll get you arrested on Wall Street.
8. Poorer Than You is addicted to crack. No, wait, she’s just talking to herself about her imaginary 401(k).
9. Earning minimum wage? You suck! I mean, stop earning minimum wage courtesy of The Digerati Life.
10. The Sun’s Financial Diary retells the FNBO Direct Saga. Find out why one bank said to Sun (and me!) “you are a terrorist because you’re unemployed, so we’re keeping your money.” Or something like that. No, I’m not unemployed.

Until next week, have your spouse spayed or neutered! (Maybe this is why I’m not the new host of The Price is Right.)

By Jon, the Master Tightwad

Webster’s certainly doesn’t list the acquisition of brand new cars under the definition for tightwad, so I was walking a tight line when I replaced my 1997 Camry with a 2007 Corolla. I am a lean, mean tightwad machine, so I had to do some heavy rationalizing before I could bring myself to driving off in a new car.

While rationalizing, I never factored the possibility the dealership would wreck my new car into the equation. Before I get into that, consider how this resident tightwad talked himself into buying this car in the first place.

Why Purchasing a Brand New Vehicle Is Thrifty After All

1. The Camry was approaching 200,000 miles, and I found it awkward to be recognized–by name–at the grocery store by Firestone Guy. A new car would mean fewer trips for repairs. Savings: Time and Money.
2. A new car is more fuel efficient (especially a Corolla versus a Camry). I went from 23 MPG to 38 MPG, a 65% improvement. Savings (based on driving 400 miles per week; I drive a lot!): almost 7 gallons, or about $20 per week.
3. I needed to replace the Camry. Do I purchase used, and take a chance on the driving habits of some stranger (suddenly I recall yours truly pulling out of Midway Airport in that white Mustang, and the ensuing four days of sheer speed and adrenaline… so sorry Avis!)?
4. Note to self: Never, ever buy a car that was once part of a rental fleet.
5. Free Tires For Life! Yup, I was a sucker. They got me. Their handy little gimmick seemed like a no brainer on TV: buy a new car, never pay for tires.
6. Free shuttle service if you let us service that new vehicle. Heck, we’ll even pick your car up if you’re nice to us.

Valet pick-up from the office? Sign me up!

Which brings us to The Call: “Hello, Mr. Tightwad, this is Bubba* at Toyota. I’m afraid I have some bad news. On the way to the dealership to service your car, our porter was in an accident. Now don’t worry, he wasn’t hurt. In fact, the damage isn’t all that bad.”

Now this is the point where I get that lump in my throat. You know, the “I just swallowed a golf ball” feeling you get when someone tells you something that simply can’t be true. So after picking myself up from the floor (and hurling said Titleist from my throat), reality sinks in. My brand new car, the one I had to talk myself into buying in the first place, isn’t so new anymore.

Now I must admit the dealership has been treating me okay so far. A rental car was delivered to me a couple hours later. Then, two days later, an appraiser calls with the good news: “Mr. Tightwad, I’ve evaluated your vehicle, and the repairs we need to make total $4,061.” Hmmm… now even I didn’t think the car looked that bad. But what to do?

What to do? I started hunting on the Internet. Shouldn’t I get compensation for the stigma of owning a wrecked vehicle? I’m pretty sure Hester Prynne had trouble in the relationship department after being branded with that scarlet letter. What future owner would want to marry my poor Corolla, even if she does look just fine in her elegant silver makeup?

*Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Two and a Half Weeks Later

I’ve come to accept that I am simply lost in the system. A week ago the insurance company called to let me know the body shop was finished working its magic, and my car was good as new. Great, so when should I pick it up, I ask. Well, that’s not why we’re calling, Mr. Tightwad. Usually, we cut a check directly to the vehicle’s owner, but for your convenience I can send payment directly to the shop. Great service, I’m thinking.

So I did the math in my head.

• Monday… body shop finishes with Shirley (come on, you know yours has a name, too!).
• Tuesday… dealership picks up car from body shop. Dealership completes regularly scheduled maintenance. Dealership calls Mr. Tightwad to arrange vehicle swap.
• Wednesday… Mr. Tightwad turns in rental car, neglecting to fill tank (figuring the least I’m getting out of this is a free tank of gas… are they really going to tell me to go fill it up first after what they put me through?). Mr. Tightwad accepts keys to Shirley, negotiates a generous service credit to account for the diminished value, and sets out to conquer the world.

One Week Later

Instead, Mr. Tightwad continues to drive the Camry. The Camry is nice and all, but there comes a point where one must assume Shirley is MIA. What to do? Fleeting thoughts return of the sexy white Mustang in Chicago. Vroooom Vrooooooooooom. Tightwad realizes he must get his “money’s worth” from the Camry. So, Tightwad uses the Camry to haul old, wet carpet from his house; he tests that “Zero to 60 in __ Seconds” promise; he evaluates the effects of sudden braking pressure on a wet gravel road; he takes… a Road Trip!

I plead the fifth on further details regarding the Camry. Let’s just say the dealership is getting Street Justice from Mr. Tightwad from here on out. Twenty-one hundred miles later, I’ve found a new love (sorry, Shirley!).

Oh, the joys of rental cars!

(5 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Jon, the Master Tightwad works in the non-profit software industry by day and hunts for bargains by night. He’s a single guy living in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama.

It is widely known that people tend to spend more with credit cards than if they use cash. Supposedly this is because you can “feel” cash leaving you.

From a scientific perspective, the paper bills passing through your hands release tiny particles found in the ink used to print money. Those particles travel through your bloodstream, sending a signal through your nerves straight to your brain which responds by releasing chemicals that make you feel remorseful (see diagram, top). The plastic of credit cards does not cause the same biochemical reaction, so you don’t get that feeling of regret (see diagram, bottom).

Okay, I just made up all that crap. But it’s still generally true that most people spend anywhere from 10-30% more when using credit than when paying with cash.

But I’m not most people.

As I’ve discovered in the last week, I tend to spend more when using cash than when using credit cards. And I think I know why:

• Cash tends to come from “nowhere.” I rarely have cash in my possession. If I ever do, it’s not on purpose. Usually it’s a gift or it comes from selling something I don’t need. I view it as extra money, so I’m more inclined to spend it on frivolous things.
• Cash doesn’t make it to my books. Because of the way cash typically enters my possession, I almost never log it in my personal finance tracking application of choice. And I don’t log receipts for transactions I pay in cash either. Thus there’s no line item in my monthly spending report to make me feel guilty for spending $60 in cash on two hot dogs at a baseball game.
• I don’t like cash. Cash takes up precious room in my wallet, and it invariably spawns something I hate even more: loose change. The sound of coins clinking in my pocket–ugh, it sends shivers through me. Perhaps I spend cash quicker because my subconscious is working to get rid of it faster. Of course, I could just deposit it in the bank, but going to the bank is another thing I don’t like doing.

So do you fall into the typical behavioral pattern of spending more with credit cards, or do you part with cash easier like I do?

By Valerie March

For our parents, a job’s value was measured simply by the salary. Fortunately for us savvy, albeit a bit spoiled, future CEOs and presidents, we understand that having a “good” job means more than just having a good income.

Vacation time, tuition reimbursement, liberal health benefits, telecommuting, and two-ply toilet paper in the restrooms are all benefits that add toward your happiness at work. And don’t forget stock options–even though a lot of employees do.

It’s not surprising that most young professionals don’t know much, or anything, about stock options. Along with balancing a checkbook or how to change a tire, investing isn’t actively taught in school.

Deficits in the education system aside, many new professionals forgo taking advantage of their company’s stock option program simply because they don’t know what options are, how to use them, or the potential value they hold.

Just What Are Options?

Simply put, a stock option is an agreement that lets you purchase a set number of shares of a company’s stock at a specific price for a specific amount of time. Is that vague enough for you?

There are actually all sorts of options on all sorts of stocks, market indices (think the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Industrial Average) and commodity items, like oil, gold or even coffee–it’s sort of like betting on horses for guys (and gals) in suits.

To keep befuddlement at bay, for the purpose of this article and talking about stock options with regard to employment benefits, all you need to know is that if your company offers you a stock option, they are giving you an opportunity to buy their stock at a discount at some point in the future.

The goal is to motivate you to work harder and contribute to the company’s success so that its stock will increase in value, then you can cash in your options to buy the stock at a discount. After you buy the stock, you are certainly allowed to hold on to it, but most people simply turn around and sell their shares on the open stock market at the increased price for a profit.

Here’s a real world example mirroring how stock options work. Your parents gave you a beater car when you’re 14 years old. You work to repair, clean and paint the car, but you still can’t drive it until you’re 16. When you get your license, you’re able to drive; but at that point, you can either keep the car and put more work into it to increase the value, or you can sell the car and pocket the cash.

An Awesome Options Examples

Now, let’s look at an example of how stock options work for employees, so that if you’re ever offered them, you can do more than stand there and scratch your head.

You sign on for a new job with Awesome Company and Associates. Good for you!

Awesome Co. is a publicly traded company that uses the stock ticker symbol is AWE. (A ticker symbol simply contains one to five letters to identify a corresponding company’s shares for investors on the open market.) Shares of AWE are currently valued at $50 on the open stock market.

Your Awesome Boss says, “New Awesome employee, based on what our stock is currently worth, we’d like to offer you stock options with a $50 strike price (sometimes known as the “award,” “grant” or “exercise” price) and an expiration date of Jan. 15, 2011.”

The strike price simply indicates that any time before Jan. 15, 2011, you can theoretically cash in your stock options and buy your allotted AWE shares at $50, regardless of what they are actually worth on the open market. (Options expirations can occur in any month, and it will probably depend on your start date.)

Awesome Boss’ Master Plan is that you (and your co-worker drones) will work really hard to make Awesome Co. even more awesome. Investors will take note and start buying up AWE shares, thus driving its value skyward.

Awesome Boss hopes that you will ignore all of the really long, hard hours and stick it out for a couple of years so that you can cash in your options and make a nice profit for yourself because Awesome Boss hopes that, come Jan. 15, 2011, shares of AWE will have increased to, say, $80, thanks to your hard work.

Voila! Awesome Boss has simultaneously motivated you to work harder, while offering you a potential raise that won’t even come from the company’s wallet. Stock options are brilliant!

Well, at least for your company.

Are They Always the Best Option?

The main problem is that stock options are only valuable if, in fact, your company performs well and the stock value increases. If the stock price doesn’t grow much, or even declines, your stock options won’t be worth a toot.

Better said: Don’t bother accepting options if you think your company is a stinker. (But then, if you think your firm is a dog, what are you doing working there?)

By offering stock options, your employer also assumes that you plan to be at least marginally involved in investing. To cash in your stock options, you must have a broker–either a live person or an online account.

These days, online brokers are fairly inexpensive and easy to navigate, but most charge commission fees for every action to buy or sell options and stock. Also keep in mind that you will most likely be taxed on any profit that you make.

And what happens if you hate your job and no amount of stock options or flavored coffee creamers in the break room or casual Fridays is going to help that–can you cash in your options after your leave? Like most employee benefits, if you quit or get fired, your stock options are likely subject to certain limitations; each company is different, so be sure to find that out.

In the same vein, most companies require a “vesting period” before you can cash in on your options. During the vesting period, usually between three to five years, the company wants to ensure that you’re going to stick around and in”vest” in your job, so they prohibit you from cashing in on the stock options.

Don’t Let The Man Get One Over on You

Like anything that is potentially very lucrative, stock options require some work to reap the benefit. If you don’t plan to stay at the company for more than a year or so, it’s probably best not to bother, and only you know if you have the patience or interest to file the paperwork, open a brokerage account, and deal with the issues at tax time.

The truth is, many employers expect their workers to ignore their stock options. They know full well that most people won’t take the little time and effort required to reap their rewards.

Exercising your stock options is one small way you can stick it to The Man.

Or, like Dell employees, you can enroll in the stock options program and just hope your company screws up. Dell is currently under investigation for accounting no-nos, and its employees can’t cash in stock options right now, even if they wanted to. Thus, Dell will pay every eligible employee a nice sum to cover its mishap. Dude, you’re getting some cash.

But generally speaking, company accounting blunders notwithstanding, just like flex time or the company gym, how much you really benefit from stock options is up to you.

(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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Valerie March writes about trading options for a living, and enjoys her company’s large inventory of flavored coffee creamers. When Valerie’s not working for The Man, she’s busy as an aspiring singer/songwriter. You can check her out at www.valeriemarch.com.

By Michele Stillwell

After reading Punny Money for a couple of years, you college students out there might know that you can save lots of money avoiding the school bookstore and flashing your student ID at area businesses for a discount. But for today’s college student on a shoestring budget, sometimes you have to go beyond conventional wisdom to make it through your four (or five, or ten) years of college financially intact.

Credit Cards

Conventional Wisdom: Get the Citi mtvU Visa and receive 5 ThankYou Points for each dollar spent at the college bookstore (including textbooks, clothing, and other necessities), and at restaurants and movie theaters. Send in your transcripts each semester and get up to 2,000 points for good grades.

Beyond CW: When you’ve accumulated some points, rather than getting a gift card that you’ll spend on things you don’t need or trading it in for cash at a less that 1 point for $1 exchange, use it for student loan rebates and get the full value of your points in a check to your student loan bank–it’s easy to do and the check comes quickly.

Textbooks

Conventional Wisdom: Look online (Amazon and AbeBooks, among many others) for used books at a fraction of the price. See if there are any student co-ops or book swaps for getting cheap textbooks. At the end of the semester (or better yet at the beginning of the next semester), sell your books online and avoid the bookstore buyback at all costs.

Beyond CW: Many college bookstores hire temporary cashiers for two weeks at the beginning of the semester during the textbook buying rush. Contact your bookstore to see if they’re hiring. Not only will you get paid an hourly rate, but you’ll get an employee discount (as much as 15%) on your books for the semester.

Many professors get free textbooks sent to them by publishers hoping they’ll choose to use it for their class (thus putting more money in the pockets of the publishers). Often the professors don’t need or want them and they’re relegated to recycling or a box in storage. Ask your professors for their unwanted books or check recycling and you might come across some brand new, most recent edition books that will sell very well online.

If you see your book online for extremely cheap and then realize it’s an earlier edition than the one on the booklist, don’t immediately dismiss it. Textbook publishers often come out with new editions after only making minimal updates or adding one chapter. If you have a classmate with the newer book to fall back on, you can usually save a huge amount by getting an older edition. But make sure to do your research on the changes because occasionally there is a major update and you’ll be lost with an outdated book.

As soon as you have your booklist, check out the books from the school library (do it quickly before someone else beats you to them). After you attend class and get a syllabus, you’ll have a better idea of which books you really need and which ones the professor put on the booklist only because he wrote it and gets a cut for each book sold. Plus, if you decide to buy it online, having a copy from the library will ensure you don’t get stuck without the book when you have an assignment. Your library doesn’t have the book? Check out the inter-library loan or consortium program–they’re often really easy to use and give you access to a huge database of books.

Using the College Discount

Conventional Wisdom: Use your college ID to get discounts at the movie theater, on transit passes, and in other places. Get a Student Advantage card to save money with companies like Amtrak, Greyhound, Target, and more.

Beyond CW: If you live in a city that has a car sharing company like Zipcar or Flexcar, most universities have organizational memberships which give affiliated members–including students–discounts. If you use a car share instead of the costs of parking, maintaining and fueling your own car, your savings will soar.

Many universities, usually the department in charge of student activities, have Costo/Sam’s Club memberships and make the cards available to student organizations. Use the card to access one of the warehouse clubs and save money on buying soda, veggies, and more in bulk.

Many first-run live theaters offer half-price tickets (or even less–I’ve gotten $10 ticket to Broadway-esque plays in the past) to students if you go to the box office on the day of the presentation and ask.

Unite With Your Fellow Students

Beyond CW: Many universities have not-for-profit, student-owned-and-operated coffee shops, book co-ops, convenience stores that offer books, clothes, food, and more at prices cheaper that surrounding businesses. If your university doesn’t have one, consider starting one up and gaining amazing business experience while saving your fellow students money.

Share expenses with floor/dorm/apartment mates. For example, rather than buying separate cable for your room (and wasting time in front of the TV when you should be out experiencing college life), see if you can get people on your floor to contribute a few bucks for cable in the common room and make TV watching a social event.

Be creative and have fun with your friends for free rather than paying for theater tickets or cover charges. Have a unique costume party or pot-luck–the crazier the theme, the better.

Other Tips for Saving or Making Money

Conventional Wisdom: Before buying anything new, check Craigslist, Freecycle, local thrift stores and moving sales to see if you find it cheap or free.

If you’re eligible for work study, find a low stress job at an academic department or office and use down time to study.

Beyond CW: Instead of visiting Blockbuster, check your college library’s DVD collection–there might be something you want to see. Often libraries have some great independent and arty films, and occasionally more popular hits.

Check out bulletin boards for notices of science or psychology studies that will pay you to answer questions, drink green juice, or something similarly harmless.

After You Graduate

Conventional Wisdom: Consider consolidating your student loan. Try to avoid lifestyle inflation. Oh, and find a job.

Beyond CW: See if your university has an alumni association that you can join. Many offer numerous discounts, cheap membership to the university gym, and use of other university facilities that can come in handy even if you move to another city. Careful though, you’re also likely to get calls and letters asking you to donate all the money you’ve saved and more to your alma mater.

If you’re a member of United’s Mileage Plus program, take advantage of their 10,000 mile graduation reward and you’ll be almost halfway to a free air ticket.

Above all, make sure you utilize all the amazing facilities available to you. Never again will you have so many resources–the library, the gym, the career center, the mental health center, and activities, events, speakers and student organizations–available for free (well, free after you or your parents paid thousands of dollars for the access).

(3 votes, average: 2.33 out of 5)

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Michele Stillwell is a communications associate for a nonprofit in California. She’d love to hear from you by email.