Posted: April 5th, 2012 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Lifestyle | Tags: Frugal Lifestyle, Insurance, Investing, Saving Money, spending, Tips | 5 Comments »
A recent stay at a “Boutique Country Hotel” got me thinking about the meaning of minimalism vs. simplicity and how they relate to personal finance.
It all began with our hotel room. It was a renovated riverside hotel from the 1800′s, with a curious mix of old and modern. The floor boards were the wide, plank floor boards common in 19th century construction, while the bathroom featured a state of the art Jacuzzi.
This is what our shower looked like, only ours had no shower head.
The decor was sparse, yet modern too. There was a flat panel television and one piece of post-modern art on the wall that consisted of one-quarter of an old tire, a piece of chicken wire mesh, and various other castaway everyday items all fused together in a loosely triangular shape and painted black.
But what really made an impression was the shower.
It was a standing rectangle large enough for a single person and was comprised of an Italian marble wall on two sides, and glass on the remaining two sides. It was, quite simply, a beautiful shower and elegant in its minimalism. Until I tried to use it, that is.
Once I stepped inside I realized just how minimal the design truly was. There was no shelf for holding soap or shampoo, and the faucet control only turned one way, from lukewarm to hot. There was also no showerhead. The water simply fell from a perforated plate in the ceiling. I had no place to stand out of the way of the water to lather with soap or shampoo.
It was at this point that I thought, minimalism is one thing, but what good is it if it’s not useful too?
This is when I realized I really favor simplicity over minimalism. Our modern lives have become so clutter and full or noise and distraction that there truly is a psychological benefit from simplify our lives. There’s also a financial benefit too.
Here are a few financial benefits to simplifying your life.
- One retirement account means less fees and less time spent managing various options. It also means that all your available funds are better focused, which magnifies the effect of compounding interest and dividends.
- Fewer retirement funds in a single retirement account means even less time managing the account, less fees and more focused returned.
- Fewer savings and checking accounts means less overhead and time in managing them and keeping track of your money. It also means your money is more focused and earning even more compound interest.
- Rolling all your insurance needs into one provider makes tracking your policies easier, and usually gives you a multi-policy discount on the premiums.
Are you sensing a theme here?
Generally speaking, simplifying your life makes you more efficient and frees up more time to do what you love.
Many people seem to be focusing on minimizing their lifestyle, standard of living, etc.. but that may be missing the point. I think it’s far better to streamline and simplify your life – make it easier to do the things you really want – than it is to simply downgrade your life.
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Posted: March 29th, 2012 | Author: Joe | Filed under: spending, Tips | Tags: Cable, Cable Bill, cutting the cord, Saving Money, spending | 1 Comment »
If you’re like me and millions of other Americans, you’re tired of paying close to $900 a year for cable television. In this post I will discuss how to watch streaming t.v. shows on your television after you’ve learned where to watch t.v. shows without cable service.
Streaming programs to your television.
The first thing you need to determine is whether you can stream programs straight to your television, or if you need an additional device to get the stream to your television.
Many HDTVs sold in the few years are “smart t.v.’s” -televisions that connect to the internet, so it may be as simple as plugging the internet cable into your television.
Even if you have a traditional t.v., you can still watch full episodes of your favorite shows from the internet on your t.v., however, if your television does not have an HDMI input you will have a more difficult time.
For the remainder of this post, I will focus on watching streaming t.v. shows on a non-Internet ready television.
Pick a device.
There are a host of devices that connect to the internet and/or home network and let you stream online content to your television.
Inexpensive Blue-ray dvd players, like the Sony BDP-S580 Blu-ray Disc Player (which currently retails for $112) provide internet access to Netflix , YouTube , HuluPlus , Pandora , and more. That’s just one example, there are many internet ready Blue-ray players on the market.
Some are wi-fi ready, and others aren’t. Just be sure that if you’re going to buy a new player for streaming t.v. content that you get one that suits your situation. In other words, don’t get a player that’s not wi-fi ready when you have no means of getting an internet cable to connect to it in your living room.
Besides the internet enabled Blue-ray players, there are other HD streaming media player devices like The Boxee Box by D-Link and the many flavors of Roku. And of course, there’s the Apple TV for all you mac lovers out there.
I wasn’t sure what to get or even if this whole experiment to cut cable was going to work when I set out to try it, and I didn’t want to drop $150 or more on a device I wasn’t going to use. Instead, I went with the Roku 2 HD Streaming Player, for $69. I had a $50 Amazon gift card from Christmas, so I felt a little better about the purchase. Even so, $69 is a small price to pay to free yourself from the cable beast.
I have to say that I am very impressed with the Roku. It’s tiny -I mean “fit in the palm of your hand” tiny. It’s so light weight that the HDMI cable weighs more! But the performance is quite good. Not as good as the Sony Blue-ray player we have, but that’s a hard line into the internet and just a better device overall. This is also due to this Roku being the 720 HD version. If I was going to rely solely on only my Roku for streaming content, I’d probably upgrade to the Roku XD 1080p Streaming Player.
But I use the Blue-ray as my primary Netflix and Hulu Plus device. I use the Roku for everything else, like PlayOn.
If the device you’ve chosen is wireless, as I suspect is the situation for most people these days, you may need to upgrade your network to get the best quality and performance.
How to stream online content to your t.v..
Television programming from the internet can be sent over your wireless network to your t.v. or through a traditional Ethernet cable. If your device or television accepts direct connection via Ethernet cable, then it’s as simple as plugging it in. However, if your device requires wireless internet then you will need a router.
If you already have a wireless home network you may be ahead of the game, but if it is more than a few years old you may need to upgrade to get the best performance. This was the situation I was in. My home network router was about 6 years old and provided what I needed for basic internet use, but it just could not keep up with streaming HD video.
Here are the Best 5 wireless routers recommended by CNET Reviews:
I went with the ASUS because it was on sale for $119 and I found a promo code to drop it to $109, but that was a rare alignment of sale and promo code. It’s also a dead sexy device. 
Spending over $100 on a new networking device seemed like a lot since we’re trying to cut our cable bill and lower expenses, but once we realized that it’s a 1 time expense and we will be saving that much in 3 months without having a cable t.v. bill, it quickly became a justified expense.
Streaming live t.v..
Streaming live t.v. shows from the internet can be done with additional services, like PlayOn.tv. Basically, services like PlayOn run on a computer in your home that is connected to your network, and takes live shows from the internet and streams them to your network device like Roku or Boxee to your t.v.. Live streaming is most important with sports. Most other shows can be watched only a week later over the internet, and would behave like watching a show over DVR.
It’s also important to note that some television shows are not available on Netflix, or Hulu Plus. Some are only available on Hulu basic or on the network website. CBS shows are a good example of this. One of my personal favorites is NCIS. You cannot watch full episodes of NCIS anywhere except the CBS.com website. I have no idea why CBS doesn’t license the show to Hulu, but they don’t. So the only way to watch NCIS (and some other current CBS shows) is to use a service like PlayOn, or connect your pc directly to you television.
Final thoughts.
Cutting the cord is a trade off. you’re swapping some channels and options for a lower monthly bill, or possible no monthly bill. Much of the costs described in this post are 1 time expenses, unlike your cable bill.
Once you cut the cord, and purchase the necessary equipment, there are no rental fees, broadcast fees, miscellaneous fees or any of the other hidden charges cable companies love to stick you with.
Just be sure to get your ducks in order before you cut the cord, because getting all your shows in one place is not as simple as it is with cable. Many of the devices and/or hardware can be purchased piecemeal too. You can try Netflix and Hulu Plus for 30-days free. I recommend doing so before you cancel cable. That way you can see if those providers are going to work for you.
Also, keep in mind the minimum internet speeds for movie and television quality:
- 5 mbps for 720p HD
- 10 mbps for full 1080p HD
- 10+ mbps for 3-d HD content
You can check your current internet speed at Speakeasy Speed Test.
Happy cord cutting!
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Posted: March 27th, 2012 | Author: Joe | Filed under: spending | Tags: Cable, Cable Bill, cutting the cord, Saving Money, spending | 2 Comments »
If you’re like the millions of Americans looking to slash your cable bill, then one of the first things to figure out is where to watch t.v. shows without cable service.
There are a variety of providers who make popular television shows – past and present – available to stream to your computer or your television. Here are a few of the more prominent ones that will save you money on your television bill.
Hulu vs. Hulu Plus
There are actually 2 services offered by Hulu – basic, and “Plus.” Each flavor carries different shows. Hulu (basic) is free, while Hulu Plus will cost you $8 a month. The basic Hulu service is targeted toward pc users, while the Hulu Plus service targets “smart t.v.” watchers.
That makes sense to me, but I don’t understand why they don’t offer the same shows on Hulu Plus that are available for free on Hulu. I’m hoping that Hulu will someday hire an exec with a brain who can figure out they’d get many more subscribers to the Plus version if they only rolled the free content into the Plus package.
To watch Hulu free content on your t.v., you need another provider called PlayOn. See below for details on that.
Netflix vs. Netflix.
There are also 2 different versions of Netflix: the DVD provider, and the streaming t.v. provider. Each service costs $8 a month, and provides a different set of content. This is an important distinction. When checking the availability of your shows on Netflix, make sure you’re checking only the streaming option. Unless you want to pay for both, then it really doesn’t matter. But then you’ve just doubled your Netflix bill.
Amazon Prime vs. Amazon Instant Video.
Amazon Instant Video has a vast collection of streaming content, but all of that is pay per view. Amazon Prime is a subscription based service that provides free 2 day shipping on Amazon orders and access to their Amazon Prime video streaming selection at no additional cost.
The problem is that the Amazon Prime selection sucks. The selection on Amazon Instant Video on the other hand is excellent, but it’s about $2.99 per video/episode. You do the math on a whole season of just one of your favorite shows and you’ll quickly realize it’s more expensive than cable t.v.!
Like Hulu and Hulu Plus, I just don’t understand Amazon’s decision on this one. If they combine their television content from Instant Video and Prime and offered all videos at the Prime subscription rate, they would easily dominate the streaming television market. Instead, they are content on losing that market share to Netflix and Hulu. I’m hoping they will someday figure this out, and non-cable paying television watchers everywhere can rejoice.
PlayOn.tv
Most set top devices (Roku, the Boxee Box, many internet ready Blue-ray players , etc..) provide access to a Hulu Plus account, but not the basic Hulu account. In order to watch content available on Hulu on your t.v., you either need to connect your pc directly to your television (via HDMI or similar cable), or use another service like PlayOn.tv.
PlayOn is a program that runs on your computer and takes the internet stream from Hulu or CBS.com (ESPN, Comedy Central, Spike,Nick, SyFy, TBS, Cartoon Network, NHL and many others) and relays it to your set top device over your home network. The service is not free however. It currently runs about $4 a month. Still cheaper than cable, but each PlayOn subscriber watching Hulu is a lost Hulu Plus subscriber. (Are you listening, Hulu?)
How to watch CBS shows online.
CBS is not a team player. They don’t want to provide their content to either Hulu or Netflix, yet they provide it for free on their website. This makes no sense to me. They would make more money selling their content to Netflix, and it would be easier for customers to watch if they did so.
The problem with the free website is that it’s inconvenient to watch on your t.v.. To do so requires either a direct connection from your computer to your television or an additional service like PlayOn (described above).
This was a particular problem for me because my wife and I love NCIS, which is not available anywhere but cable/dish/etc and cbs.com.
Life without DVR.
One of the major mindshifts my wife and I had to make was life without our DVR. Most people I’ve spoken with about the subject of cutting cable raise the specter of living without DVR like it’s on par with be told by their doctor they only have months to live and they’ll never get to take the European vacation they’ve always dreamed about.
It’s understandable. After all, the DVR puts the television watcher in control. They can watch when they want to, and skip through commercial breaks while doing so. Here’s the thing though – watching online content over Hulu or Netflix (or a similar service) is like DVR by default. You choose when you want to watch your show, and in many cases the commercials are already stripped out of the show for you! Even shows that do contain commercials are significantly shorter than their broadcast counterparts. We’re talking 43 minutes for an hour long show with the commercials.
Conclusion
As you can see, dropping your cable television currently requires you to replace them with a patchwork collection of alternative providers based on the shows you watch.
Streaming internet content to your television is still a fairly new technology and I believe that as the business model matures and more people drop cable, we will see services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon offer more shows in common and viewers will not have to create such a patchwork in the future.
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Posted: June 6th, 2011 | Author: Joe | Filed under: spending | Tags: Cable, Healthcare costs, medical costs, refinancing home mortgage, Saving, Saving Money, spending, Tips, video | No Comments »
The beautiful Farnoosh Torabi is at it again. This time, she stopped by the CBS Early show to share some tips for managing through your own personal cash crisis. Here are the highlights:
- The average American spends 6-12% of their annual income on gas & electricity. She talks about ways to lower that, especially for seniors and low-income households. If someone in your family has lost their job during the recession, you may now qualify.
- Cut back on cable or ask for freebies. I did this, and saved $40 a month. It’s not that difficult, and really only takes some time so why not try it?
- Medical bills. Medical bills are often times negotiable – and you may not have to go to the extreme that Farnoosh did when she saved $400 off her dental bill!
- College tuition – lost income can mean big discounts, but you need to use the “special term” mentioned in the video when dealing with the financial aid office.
- Refinancing – interest rates keep hitting record lows, if you have the equity you could save $200 per month. My wife and I were lucky enough to have enough equity to do this a few months back, and now rates are back down to where they were then so consider this your second chance if you missed the first one.
Watch the video for all the details (it’s only 4 minutes long)
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