Picking up Nickels

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

$10 Upromise bonus for new members

Upromise is offering a $10 bonus for new members that shop online at upromise.com before 6/30/08:

The $10 enrollment contribution offer available for new valid Upromise members only. To get your $10 contribution, you must enroll through this page and then make one (1) qualifying online purchase through Upromise.com by 6/30/08. Purchases made with the following online retailers are excluded from this offer: Amazon.com, Avis, Bed Bath & Beyond, Butterfield Blooms, Budget, Cryo-Cell, Eddie Bauer, Eddie Bauer Outlet, Florist.com, Flowers U.S.A., FTD.com, Gift Sense, RedEnvelope, Sharper Image and Upromise Cruises. Offer expires 6/30/08. Your $10 contribution will be deposited in your Upromise account within 90 days of making your qualified purchase. One reward per member. We reserve the right to revoke this offer if we determine, in our sole discretion, that your Upromise enrollment was duplicative, invalid or submitted in bad faith. We reserve the right to revoke this promotional offer at any time without notice.


Please note that although Upromise touts itself as a 529 college savings program, they do not require participants to open a 529 college savings account. The entire balance of your Upromise account can be withdrawn at any time by requesting a check, which you can then invest as you see fit.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

June 2008 Financial Asset Roundup

Here are my current financial assets as of the market close on June 10th, 2008:

Asset May 2008 June 2008 Change
Checking 476 873 397
Money Market 16,571 25,370 8,799
Savings Bonds 14,718 14,734 16
Treasury Bills 0 0 0
CDs 99,520 94,877 -4,643
Brokerage 102,901 106,648 3,747
401k 102,564 100,162 -2,402
Roth IRA 33,445 32,513 -932
SEP IRA 190,033 185,955 -4,078
529 Savings 38,585 37,920 -665
Credit Card 0% Balance Transfers 0 0 0
Total Assets $598,813 $599,052 $239 (0.04%)



The S&P 500 index has drifted back down 3.22% since my last update:

(chart courtesy of msn.com)

Oil prices continue to rise and briefly jumped to $136 per barrel today. My money market account balance has gotten a boost from the economic stimulus payment I received last month as well as the cash from my 6 recently matured month E*Trade CD.

I'm also expecting to have some big bills due next month (mainly from my large grocery purchase), so I'll probably be stuck in financial neutrality for the next month.