i The Frugal Law Student | 2007 | July

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Crouching Debt, Hidden Credit Card Fees

Written by Brett McKay

When you sign up for a credit card, make sure to read the fine print. You may be agreeing to fees that might bite you in the butt if you’re not aware of them. Here’s a quick list of hidden credit card fees you should be on the look out for:

  1. Credit limit fee. When you ask to raise your credit limit on your card, come cards charge you as much as 50% to make the bump. While having more available credit is good for your credit score, the fee might not make it worth it.
  2. Residual interest. This happens when you’re paying down debt over time and you’re paying off a whole balance. If you carried some balance the previous month, the following month credit card still assess interest on the balance from the previous amont. It’s a pretty sneaky interest calculation system. Keep your eyes open for it.
  3. Foreign transactions. Credit cards can definitely make foreign travel easy because most major credit cards are accepted everywhere. But be careful, some companies will charge you extra for transactions in foreign countries.

What you can do to avoid these fees

If you have a card that charges you these sneaky fees, you’re not stuck with them. Congress has recently done investigations into hidden fees and are cracking down on companies using them. If you believe you’re being charged hidden fees, call up your credit card company and threaten to report the company. If that doesn’t make them change their tune, just tell them you’ll take your business else where if the fees stay.

Featured Resource

It is true that almost all Credit Cards actually have hidden fees in the fine print, particularly Late Fees. When you are choosing a Credit card, it is always smart to compare Credit Card Offers to find one with minimal hidden charges and a low APR.

> Brett McKay | 20 Jul 07 | Credit Cards, Personal Finance | Comments (7)

Cheap Smartphone and Smartphone Plan From Sprint

Written by Brett McKay

moto-q.jpg

Lately, I’ve had an itch to get a Blackberry. It started after I read Never Eat Alone. The author discusses how he uses his Blackberry to keep track of and nourish his contact list. My only problem is that Blackberries and the data plans that go with them are pretty expensive. (Also, I’m afraid I’ll become a Crackberry-head)

My friend, John Barghols, let me know about a great cell phone deal from Sprint that includes a Blackberry like device.

Sprint Employee Referral Offer (SERO)

The Sprint Employee Referral Offer is a $30 a month cell/data plan. It includes

  • 500 anytime minutes, free weekends/nights from 7PM-7AM
  • Unlimited Sprint mobile to mobile calls
  • Unlimited Nationwide long distance
  • Unlimited data (e-mail, instant messaging, web browsing)

You can purchase a Motorola Q with the plan for $99. The listing price is $450.

In order to get in on the SERO deal, you have to enter a special e-mail address: savings@sprint.com

This looks like a pretty good deal. But alas, I won’t be taking part. While unlimited e-mail from my cell phone would be cool, I just don’t have the $30 for the monthly plan or $99 for the phone.

Before I get angry comments from people about how having a Blackberry isn’t frugal, let me say I agree. However, as I’ve written before, I’m of the opinion that frugality is relative. For many of my readers, the SERO plan is definitely a frugal option. For others, sticking with a normal cell phone/cell phone plan works for them. I’m not going to force my idea of frugality on other people. I just hope to help people from different walks of life save money.

Note: This was not sponsored post. John thought my readers would appreciate the tip and shared it with me. Thanks for the tip, John!

> Brett McKay | 19 Jul 07 | Cell Phones, Frugality, Saving | Comments (4)

Free Law School Admissions Webinar For Frugal Law Student Readers

Written by Brett McKay

All you pre-law students or readers interested in going to law school, listen up. Ann K. Levine, law school admissions expert and coach, is offering a free webinar to Frugal Law Student readers called “I’ve Taken the LSAT; Now What?” You can attend this $150 webinar absolutely free if you mention The Frugal Law Student in your sign up e-mail.

Ann’s webinar will be August 4 at 12PM EST. She’ll take you step by step on what you need to do during your law school application process. Ann will also explain how to take advantage of rolling admissions and how you can be done with applying to law school by early November. I wish I knew this kind of stuff when I was applying. Sign up today so you can take advantage of this free offer. Remember to mention The Frugal Law Student.

Featured Resource

One of the most important decisions a Law Student makes is choosing where they will eventually practice Law. It requires a different set of certifications to become a New York Attorney than it does to qualify as a California Lawyer, and an bar requirements vary by State.

> Brett McKay | 18 Jul 07 | Free Stuff, law school | Comments (3)

How I Plan For Irregular Expenses

Written by Brett McKay

My wife and I have done a good job of controlling our spending and saving money. For the most part, we know how much we spend each month and have been able to budget our money so we have enough left over for building our emergency fund as well as putting away for long term saving goals.

Everything goes swimmingly until we get notice that our $400 car insurance is due next month or we have our 6 month dental check-up. Costs like these are so irregular that they’re easy to forget. When they do come,we usually have to dip into our emergency funds for these not quite emergencies.

This arangement annoyed me, so I sat down last week to figure out how to plan for these irregular expenses. Here’s what I did.

Write down all your irregular expenses and how much you usually spend. For me, my irregular expenses include car insurance, car maintenance, Christmas shopping, and doctor/dental visits.

Add up how much you spend on each irregular expense and divide by 12. The outcome is how much you’ll need to put away each month in order to cover your irregular expenses when they come up. Instead of dipping into my emergency fund, I’ll already have the money.

Open and ING Electric Orange Checking account. I’m stashing my irregular expense money in the ING Electric Orange account with a 3.93% interest rate. Because these expenses happen every 3-4 months, I’ll be able to earn some decent dividends.

Use your ING Account for these expenses. I like keeping this money separate from my normal accounts. It keeps things easy and organized.

My wife and I are putting about $140 a month aside into this account. In order to make this work, we had to reduce the amount we put into our investment accounts a little. I definitely think it’s worth it. We were only fooling ourselves of our financial position by not taking into account these expenses. Sure, by not putting money aside for these costs we can invest extra or put more money in our emergency fund, but when these expenses come up, we have to take the extra money we stashed in an emergency fund and spend it. It’s kind of a blow to our psyche. Now we’ll always know that we have money for these irregular expenses.

> Brett McKay | 18 Jul 07 | Personal Finance, Saving | Comments (7)

5 Ways To Save Money On A New Suit

Written by Brett McKay

For attorneys, a nice conservative suit is the required uniform. If you haven’t started law school yet, you’ll want to include a new suit in your list of back to school supplies. You’ll not only need it for job interviews, but if you plan on taking part in moot court, you’ll have to wear one, too.

But at $200-$300 a pop, suits are expensive, especially for a starving law student like yourself. Here are 5 tips on how you can save tons of money on your next suit, but still look like a million bucks.

  1. Buy suits on sale. Read the department store newspaper inserts religiously. Stores like Dillard’s or JC Penny have suit sales quite regularly. You can easily score a sharp looking suit for less than $200 if you keep your eyes open.
  2. Avoid add-ons. Remember that department store salesman are paid on commission, so they’re going to try to up-sale you with belts, socks, and cufflinks. Buying in store will set you back. Say “no thanks” and go to a discount department store to buy your accessories.
  3. Stick with classic designs. Don’t buy trendy suits for two reasons: 1) law is a very conservative profession. If you show up in suit that looks like it should be on a run way model, you’ll probably get funny looks from judges; and 2) trends come and go. If your suit goes out of style, you’ll probably be tempted to fork over more money to buy another. Go with a classic. You’ll never go wrong.
  4. Don’t have your suit custom made. Custom made suits will have to wait when you are charging clients $400 an hour. In law school, saving money comes before luxury. Just buy your suit and have them tailor it in store. You’ll get the same custom made feel for a fraction of the price.
  5. Buy a gently used thift store suit and have it tailored. Finding a nice thrift store suit will take a lot of patience and time; however, if you have both, you can save big bucks. I found a really sharp looking suit at a consignment store for $10. I took it in to a local men’s clothing store and they tailored it to my measurements for another $10. Total cost: $20.
> Brett McKay | 17 Jul 07 | Clothing, Frugality, Saving, law school | Comment (1)

Why Personal Finance Books Suck

Written by Brett McKay

The first half of my summer I had absolutely nothing to do while I waited for my background check to clear at the US Trustees office. I filled the time by going to my local library and reading every single personal finance book they had. Seriously.  When I finished the ones at my local branch, I started doing inter-library loans to get more. After reading so many personal finance books, I’ve come to the conclusion that personal finance books suck.

Why personal finance books suck

Personal finance books suck because all personal finance books are pretty much the same. OK, my use of the universal quantifier “all” is an overstatement, but after reading over 60 personal finance books in the past two months, it sure does seem like they’re all the same.

The biggest problem with writing for the personal finance genre is that there isn’t much to say about personal finance. The principles of personal finance are actually quite simple. How much more can be written about saving or being frugal or earning more money? Not much. Personal finance authors could try to present this information in a unique and different way, but most don’t. Why should they when it’s just easier to reproduce what others have said and slap a new catchy title on the cover?

Kumbiya my David Ramsey, Kumbiya

Another thing that irritates me about many personal finance books is the new agey, schmaltzy, touchy feely stuff about money. I hate it when an author devotes a majority of a book talking about overcoming your emotional issues with money and why people spend more than they have and then only devoting a chapter about practical things one can do to fix their finances. I think what most people need is someone to explain how they can solve their problem. Most people who read personal finance books probably have enough self awareness to understand why they have a financial problem. If they didn’t, they probably wouldn’t be reading the book in the first place. What they’re looking for are answers to solve those problems.

Authors assume all readers are in their 40’s, married, have 2.5 children, and mortgaged

Most of the personal finance books weren’t relevant to me, a young married student. I’m not at a stage in my life where I’m worrying about mortgages or paying for children’s college. I also don’t have a job, so I can’t contribute to a 401(k). Unfortunately, most personal finance books devote a large portion to these types of subjects. What can I do to save money while in school full time? How can I get the best deals on rent? Their really aren’t many personal finance books geared towards young people.  The best I’ve read was Suze Orman’s The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke.

How you can avoid sucky personal finance books and still get the info you need

So, personal finance books suck. But how are we supposed to get the info we need to make good financial decisions. Here’s two things that I suggest:

  1. Read personal finance blogs. Blogs have been my number one source for personal finance info. What I like about blogs is the variety of them that are out there with a personal finance theme. I’ve been able to find blogs with financial information relevant to my life stage, so I’m not wasting my time reading books that aren’t relevant to me at all. Personal finance blogs also seem to offer more practical advice. I love being able to read a quick top 10 money savings list or a how to on personal finances. I get the info I need quickly and efficiently.
  2. Read The Simple Dollar’s book reviews. If you must read personal finance books, make sure to head by The Simple Dollar. Trent has done extensive reviews for tons of personal finance books. Read through them and if a book looks like something you’d like, go and read it.

What do you all think? Do you like personal finance books? If you do, what do you like about them? If you don’t, what’s your beef against them?

> Brett McKay | 16 Jul 07 | Books, Personal Finance | Comments (12)
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