Have You Heard about the Lifelock Lawsuit?

I’ve been borrowing a car with satellite radio for the past few days, while we wait for my VW to act up again. The good news about this is that I can listen to my choice of radio stations (and now covet a satellite radio, but that’s another story).

Almost daily, whether it’s when I’m listening to the news in the morning or Dave Ramsey on the way home, I hear an advertisement for Lifelock. The CEO/President gives his social security number over the air, challenging anyone to steal his identity; with Lifelock, it’s not possible, he says. Are you familiar with them? Essentially, you pay them $10/month to protect you from identity theft.

Well, turns out Experian, a well-known credit-reporting agency, is suing Lifelock for this service. Experian claims Lifelock exaggerates its services and doesn’t offer what it claims to. In response, Lifelock says Experian is mad that Lifelock is threatening its ability to use consumer data without consent.

Sounds to me like Lifelock is right. Credit Reporting Agencies are notorious for giving out our info, bringing us pre-approved junk mail, etc. But Lifelock members are opted out of these, meaning less consumer info to sell.

If anyone has had experience with Lifelock, whether as a user or as a friend of one, I’d love to hear your opinion of the service.

Ammendum to 2008 Goals: Alternative Income

Thanks to PF Buzz, I came across an excellent article at www.bripblap.com: How to Make Money without a Job and Why You Should.

He starts off with “Spend less than you earn is the wrong way to think! Your time will be much better spent thinking of more ways to make money than it will be thinking of ways to save money.”

A clip: “Some people may have a trickle of investment income, or occasionally sell something on eBay and then give up after a few sales, but a large number of people consider catching up on the final season of NBC’s beloved quirky comedy “The Office” a better use of their time than trying to earn more money after a tiring day in the office. Their goal is to get by on minimum work, minimum income and maximum “down-time.” Alternative income seems like a lot of extra work to these people, and extra work isn’t what anyone wants.”

It just gets more inspiring from there. Go check it out!

Ever since I read it, I’ve been thinking about his points, mulling around ideas for additional income.

Here’s what I already have:
1. Job #2, part-time for the family company: doesn’t bring in money but covers living expenses.

ONLINE
2. eBay: very, very randomly, I sell things on eBay.
3. Blogging: bits of advertising money here and there.
4. MyPoints: I read random e-mails and earn gift cards. Want a referral? E-mail me!

INTEREST-BEARING/STOCKS
5. Savings account earnings, 3%
6. Stock portfolio earnings, variable

7. Credit card bonus points, gift cards usually every two months

Here are things I could do:
1. Freelance writing/editing
I find it overwhelming, at this moment, to think of writing/editing more than I already do. But if I could find convenient opportunities, ones that would work with my schedule, even once in a while, it might be worth it.

2. More aggressive eBaying/Craigslisting
I hate what this says about the amount of sheer stuff I have/waste, but I could probably bring in some steady $ just by selling the excess.

3. More aggressive, strategically chosen blog advertising
The links I had through PepperJamNetwork were getting me nowhere. Has anyone had success with them? I posted both banner and text links for more than a month and earned nothing, so I took them down. I wonder what other opportunities are out there, and how difficult they’d be to apply.

How a Saver Spends Vacation/Personal Days

It’s hard to believe, but my one-year anniversary at work is coming up, and with it, faster accruing vacation times and two new personal days.

The way it works is this: After your three-month probation, you get paid holidays and two personal days, as well as accruing vacation hours up to one week (40 hours). After a year, you start accruing up to two weeks over the next year, never able to earn more than 80 hours total.

(Random question: what are your personal/vacation days like? Are my benefits pretty normal?)

Even harder to believe than the fact that I’ve almost hit one year is the fact that I’ve use 0% of my vacation days and still have five hours of personal time left. California will eat three vacation days, and I’ll probably use some more this summer/early fall. The personal hours, all five of them, will expire if I don’t use them fast.

So, discovering this last week, I quickly filled out a blue slip for a half day the next Friday (today). My manager was funny, saying I didn’t have to use them. Um, let’s see: I came to work when I was tired/exhausted/sick/sniffly/etc., manned the office on Christmas Eve, have never, ever taken a sick day—and that was because I wanted to work more? HA!

I came then because I’d rather use the time for fun now. That’s just me.

How do you spend your vacation/personal days? Are you a spender or a saver, and does that match with your PF philosophies?

Dear VW

I have been your loyal customer for the better part of ten years, and I’m writing to tell you why that’s changed.

For a long time, I’ve been satisfied with my Jetta because of its great mileage and quality construction. Even though diesel prices have skyrocketed over the life of my car ownership (presently $4.99 in Chicagoland), my car mileage softens the change, giving me an average of more than 50 miles to the gallon.

And in 2003, the well-made craftsmanship of the car became extremely important to me, when I almost totaled it in a bad car accident involving black ice. I and the three passengers survived, in part due to the way the car was made. More than once, therefore, I’ve been very thankful to be driving a Volkswagon. Because of my high satisfaction with my vehicle over the past few years, I’ve told friends, family, coworkers and fellow bloggers about it. To be honest, I fully thought I’d buy Volkswagon again.

Unfortunately, I no longer feel that way. My car is currently at just over 87,000 miles, and a mechanic tells me that cars like mine should last well into 200,000. Yet, for over four months, my car’s been having fairly major mechanical problems: strong burning chemical smells, inability to pick up speed, high RPMs. Yet no warning lights have come on at all. I’ve taken the car in to my local Volkwagon dealership four times now.

Each time, the mechanics tell me nothing is wrong. Each time, I bring the car home and it smells like it’s on fire, it can’t speed up on the road and it goes into overdrive while under 40 mph.

I’m sure you understand how frustrating this must be, especially when you factor in not only the safety concerns, but also the time involved in transporting a vehicle back and forth to the dealership.

Now that gas prices are lower than diesel and now that I am losing all hope of my car’s returning to normal, I am wondering if I should just sell it. Next time, I think I’ll buy a Honda.

14th Money Hacks Carnival

The 14th edition of the Money Hacks Carnival is up, with a golf theme. My post, New Grad: 5 Things I Wish I’d Known, is included in the career section. Go take a look!

Claiming Authority at Work

A few weeks ago, my blogging friend Full-Grown Single responded to some questions I had about, essentially, how to be a manager:

She writes, “You have a different set of stuff to work through: how to claim your own authority, maybe, and then, how to get other people to want to do what you want.”

She was right.

I have this feeling that I’ll be working through this for a long while, but I have good news: it’s getting better. The first big step came when I hit a new point of resolve, where it was OK if I didn’t stay at my company. I updated my resume, I polished my portfolio and I started looking around. I even applied for a few things. This gave me a feeling of freedom, where I wasn’t as concerned about making my boss happy as I was about making things better.

So first: I did some research online, and I found an employee survey that I tweaked a bit and sent to my department. They could fill it out if they wanted, with or without names. It helped me see how they thought things were going, what they wanted improved, how satisfied they were. I learned one person wants to work different hours (no prob), another really wants to be full-time (possible), another wants more editing, less writing (done). In my mind, I don’t know why they wouldn’t just tell me this anytime, but inviting them to do so really worked. This gave me the opportunity to give them something.

Then I met with my boss. He explained again all the reasons for the salary freeze. Then I told him, especially since we have this freeze, I think we should be getting X, Y & Z, these things being other benefits that wouldn’t relate to money but that would make a big difference. I felt like, what did I have to lose? He was so reasonable, as he has been from the beginning, and he gave me what I wanted.

Result: For the first time in a long time, I feel really good about how things are going. Lessons learned? a little research and willingness to try/ask/invite feedback can make a big difference.

what’s on my mind today

The nicest man I work with, the one who treats everyone with respect and fast became my all-around favorite 60-something, is having major surgery today. Major, major surgery. And I know he’s scared.

I hadn’t seen him around lately, and I thought his performance had been down and maybe he’d been let go. Apparently I was half-right. He was let go, in a way, but he also is having serious health concerns, with an aneurysm last week.

If you pray, would you pray for him today? I’ll try to post an update when I hear news. Times like these, I have to admit it’s hard to care much about the little nitty-gritty day-to-day work stuff I have to do. It’s hard to think it’s that important, other than the principles of work ethic and earning a living, etc.

At the end of my life, or at a time when I know it could be the end, I doubt most of my work stuff will matter, save for the relationships and the ways it mattered to those relationships. The ridiculously out-of-proportion responses I see in business to things that are kind of trivial (i.e., money, the making of it, the spending of it) will be just shadows.

Carnival of Work-Life Balance

I was honored to have my post, I’ve Chosen a New Work Motto: You Can Only Do So Much be included in the editor’s picks for the third carnival of work-life balance, hosted by Are We Balanced Yet?

Go over and take a look at the long list of entries!

New Site: PF Buzz

Go see what the buzz is about at PF Buzz (wow, lame, I know. just couldn’t resist!) It’s a new social media site intended to showcase the best personal-finance and money-related articles. Created by a PF blogger for PF bloggers, it seems like a great new place to find quality info.

I’ve submitted some of my favorite articles; why don’t you, too?

2008 Goals

Of course, posting one’s goals for 2008 in late May isn’t exactly ideal. But it isn’t as if I’ve just now decided upon them; they’ve been in my mind, as well as tracked on my sidebar, clearly set for the most part for the better part of five months.

Only now, I’m laying them out in black and white, with the reasons behind them. Feel free to comment/advise/suggest alterations:

Goal #1: Max my Roth IRA contribution to the full $5K.
I start with this goal because it’s easy to set, as the contribution is capped for me. The government will let me contribute $5K; I’m going to contribute $5K.
Note: as of now, this is my only retirement savings account. I maxed it out in full for 2007 ($4K) and will continue doing so. I do not, however, also have a 401K. I could get one, but my company doesn’t offer a match, and I’m just not that concerned about it to go get one otherwise. Thoughts?

Goal #2: Get a total of $50K in my stock portfolio by the end of the calendar year.
$50K would be a 20% downpayment on a $250K house. While I’m not genuinely planning to move right now, I’d like to have the full $50K set aside (plus some) before I do. I think this is very, very attainable (save a stock-market crash or something drastic) as I currently set aside a huge part of every paycheck and I’m already at $41K, before I hit the halfway mark for the year.

Goal #3: Get a total of $8K in my emergency/freedom fund by the end of the calendar year.
I started this fund last year. Given that I’ve deposited any extra funding into it: my tax refund ($1000+), my economic stimulus package ($600), etc., this little account (an ING) is already past $5K. It gets $200 auto-deposited every paycheck, so that’s around $3K more by the end of the year, putting me at my goal.

There’s nothing magical about the number $8K, but I feel it’s well more than I need. I currently live very comfortably on about $900/month, and that’s with my company’s health plan taken into account. So even if I lost my job, I’d be able to survive for quite a while on $8K. I like to be overprotected, though, since you never know what you come up.

Temporary Goal #4: I’m going to California in June, and I’ve set the target goal at $1000.
Truth is, I definitely don’t need this much, especially seeing as I purchased my plane ticket already, and that was the biggest cost. As of now, May 24, I have a little over $400. I’ll try to deposit any leftovers I have at the end of each two-week period. If I don’t get up to the full $1K, it’s not a big deal.