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Saturday Roundup

Life, Misc

Jack-o-latern
Image via Wikipedia

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Day 18  of the 30 Day Compact.  We’re doing well, but not perfect.  My cousin is getting married next week, and I’m not going to buy used for that.  That makes it 1 purchase so far this month, not counting food or consumable hygiene items.   That’s not too bad!

The Best Posts of the Week:

Yahoo put 1000 computers to work for 23 days and found that the 2 quadrillionth digit of pi is 0.  Just for the geek of it.

If you are habitually late, you are rude and selfish.  Don’t leave other people waiting for you.

Just letting my inner survivalist out for a minute:  Always watch what’s going on around you and don’t put yourself in a situation that makes you an easy victim.   I strongly recommend a “Refuse to Be a Victim” class for everyone, especially–to let out my inner chauvanist–women.

For Halloween this year, I think I’m going to go as sexy Big Bird.

And finally, how much of your weekly 168 hours are you wasting?

Finally, a list of the carnivals I’ve participated in:

Nada.   I forgot to submit any posts to any carnivals last week.  I’m a sad clown.

Questions from a reader

Finance

Image by Manda Mia via Flickr

Today, I’m going to post some questions I’ve been asked, either by email or elsewhere.   I’m not going to post my answers, because I would really like to know what you think.  Please help me answer these questions.

Q1. My DVD player broke recently, just after the warranty expired.   I want to go buy a new one and then put the broken one in the box to return.   Do you think that’s wrong?

Q2. My wife and I fight about money constantly.   She doesn’t see the point in saving, when she can use the money to be happy right now.  I want to retire early.  How can I show her she’s wrong?

Q3. I know I should start bringing lunch to work, but I need to network with my coworkers and supervisors to advance my career.  How can I balance that?

Like I said, I’m not going to answer these questions until you, my readers, have had a chance to weigh in.    I know what my knee-jerk response is, and I know that none of these questions are as simple as they first appear.   What’s your take?

Everyone who gives a real answer to all three questions will be entered into a drawing for a $20 Amazon gift card.  Just leave a comment with all three answers and you’ll be entered.   How’s that for a bribe?   I’ll draw a name on Wednesday.  That way, you can use the money to either celebrate or mourn the election results.

Edit: I used random.org to do the drawing and the winner is….mbhunter!  Congrats, email is sent.

Make Extra Money, Part 5: Domains and Hosting

Business, Finance

In this installment of the Make Extra Money series, I’m going to show you how to pick a domain and a host.

If you remember from the last installment, I’ve decided to promote The Master Wedding Planning Guide.   Since then, I have bought the product and read enough to decide that’s it worth promoting.    That is the secret to ethical internet product.  Never promote a crap product.  Now, when I bought the Guide, I used my own affiliate link, so the $37 product will have cost me about $13,  once the commission check comes through.  You can’t do that just to get a discount because Clickbank has measures in place to ensure that you are actually selling products.

Domain Name

The first thing we need is a domain name.

You can skip this if you want to host on blogger, but I wouldn’t do that, unless $10 is a major financial hardship.  I dislike the idea of leaving everything in Google’s hands.  Even if you use blogger for hosting(discussed later), pop for the domain name.   That way, if you change your mind about hosting, you can move without losing everything.

Where should you go for your domain name?   I use NameCheap and GoDaddy.  I try to divide my domain names across each of the providers so all of my sites don’t look identical to Google.   I may be paranoid, but it works for me.

Before you order, hit Google for a coupon code.   Search for “namecheap coupon” or “godaddy coupon” and save some money.     GoDaddy is offering $7.49 domains.

How do you pick a domain name?

I try to pick something that matches the product name, or the product’s site.   In this case, the product’s site is http://www.masterweddingplanning.com and http://www.masterweddingplanning.net was available, so I grabbed it.    I would have been happy with .com, .net, or .org.   I won’t touch a .info domain.  They are generally cheap, but they cost more to renew and people assume they are spam sites.

If the exact match domain isn’t available, I look for exact matches for the product.   If that’s not available, I stick other words at the end that would be attractive to people looking to buy a product.

Acceptable domains would include:

  • http://www.masterweddingplanning.org
  • http://www.masterweddingplanningreview.com
  • http://www.masterweddingplanningguide.net
  • http://www.masterweddingplanningreviewed.org

Or nearly anything along those lines.   Other good words to attach would be “revealed”, “exposed”, or something similar.  Just put yourself in the shoes of a buyer.   Would the domain name look like something that could help you decide whether or not to buy a product?

Hosting

Your host is where your website lives.   Without a host, you can’t have a website.

When it comes to picking a host, you have some choices to make.

First, do you want to go free or paid?  Free sounds great, and if money is tight, it’s not a bad choice, but it does limit your options.

If you’re going free, you’re going with Google’s Blogger.   WordPress.com’s hosting eliminates your advertising options, as does almost every other free host.  I do know of a couple of free WordPress hosts that will let you run ads and advertising campaigns, but the performance is horrible.

Another problem with using Google is that they can decide your site violates their Terms of Service and shut it down.   It shouldn’t happen, but it’s not unheard of with affiliate marketing sites.   If you go this route, plan to move to paid hosting when you start making money.

That leaves us with paid hosting.

There are a ton of hosts out there, but only three I have personal experience with.

I won’t use GoDaddy for hosting.  I’ve never been happy with their technical support.

I have most of my domains on HostGator (c0upon code: HOSTINGBUDDY).  I’m happy with them.  Performance is good and the customer service is excellent.  Their hosting packages start at $3.96 per month.

I also have a hosting account at HostTheName.  I got that because, using coupon code “STARTUPWARRIOR”, hosting prices get down to $1 per month.   At $36 for 3 years, I couldn’t turn it down.   Initially performance was rocky, but they’ve upgraded and it’s good, now.

Once you’ve created your hosting account, you’ll need to go back to your domain name registrar and set the name servers.    At NameCheap, after you log in, you’ll go to Domains > Manage Domains and click on the domain name.   From there, click on “Domain Name Server Setup” on the left of the screen and enter the custom name server information listed on your hosting account.

When that’s done, go to your hosting account and add the domain.  If you’re creating a new hosting account, this will be your main domain and the hosting company will ask you for the information during setup.   If you’re adding this to an existing hosting account, log in, look for “Addon Domains” and follow the prompts.

At this point, you’ve chosen a product to promote and keywords/search terms to go with it.  You’ve chosen and registered a domain name and you’ve set up a hosting account to hold your website.    Next time, I’ll walk through setting up a WordPress site to make some money.

Any questions?

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Becoming a Landlord

Business, Finance

For those of you just tuning in, my mother-in-law died in April.

Since then, we’ve spent nearly every available moment at our inherited house, digging out and cleaning up.

My mother-in-law was a compulsive hoarder.   I’m not going to get into the details of her compulsion, but we have–so far–filled a 30 yard dumpster.  For perspective, that’s big enough to fit our Ford F150.

Now that the house is approaching the point where we can begin updating and remodeling, I’ve been looking into the requirements to rent it out.

In my city, I need to get a business license that costs $95 per year.   This comes with a requirement to allow the city to inspect the property every two years.

Before they will issue the license, I have to take an 8 hour Minnesota Crime Free Multi-Housing Program class that covers tenant screening, lease addendum, evictions, and “etcetera”, followed by a physical audit of the property to ensure minimum security standards.

The lease addendum basically reads “If you are loud, obnoxious, threatening, criminal, intimidating, or doing/dealing drugs, you will be evicted.”

The actual costs to become a landlord are going to be:

  • Something under $100 for my wife and I to take the landlord class.  The price varies from free to $40, depending on the hosting city.
  • $95 per year for the privilege of using our private property to conduct a private transaction with a private individual.
  • The remodel.  I don’t know what this is going to cost, yet.   There’s an unfinished bathroom in the unfinished basement.  I’d like to finish both of those, though the basement will never hold a 3rd bedroom, due to code.  The entire house need to be painted and have the trim replaced.  The dining room and hallway have hardwood floors, hiding under linoleum that was never properly put down.   We may need new windows.

If possible, I’d like to keep the project under $20,000.   Since we’re not adding a 3rd bedroom, or tearing out the kitchen cabinets, it should be possible.

In the meantime, expect to see a bunch of remodeling and renting related posts coming up.

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Counting Cards: How to Cheat At Blackjack

Finance

A blackjack game in progress
A blackjack game in progress (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don’t gamble much.  I’ve got this boring kind of luck that let’s me gamble for a really long time on not much money, without ever winning big.

For example, when my wife was very pregnant with our first monster, we took a trip to visit my parents.  It’s a 2 hour drive, and she needed a break halfway there.  In the truck stop, we bought $5 worth of scratch-offs to pass some time.   We turned in the winning tickets for more scratch-offs.   And again.   And again.   Two hours later, we were out of winners, but had never accumulated more than $10.

Another time, we went to the casino to play slots.   It took nearly 8 hours to spend $20.   That sounds boring, but we had good conversation while we were playing.

I’ve never had a big win or a big loss from gambling, so I’ve always been kind of bored with the idea.

Now, cheating at blackjack, that’s a different matter.  Pulling one over on the casino without getting caught…they make movies about that kind of stuff.

To be clear: counting cards in your head isn’t cheating.   Legally, the worst that can happen is you can be asked to leave.   To get a Hollywood-I-cheated-the-casino-and-got-caught-and-beat-by-the-mob kind of beating, you need to win a lot.

A lot.

To get started, there are a few things you need to know.  One of those things is how to play blackjack, but I’m not going to get into the basics.  If you don’t know how to hit, stand, or count to 21 without taking your clothes off, this guide may be too advanced for you.  Come back later.

Super Basic Strategy

You don’t need to count cards to use this strategy.   You will do better than most players if you follow along.

1.  The dealer must hit, or take another card, if he has 16 points.  If he has 17, he stands.

2.  The hole card–the card you can’t see–is always worth 10.  Of course, it’s not, but for the purposes of your strategy, assume it is.

That means, when the dealer is showing a 2, you’ll assume he’s got 12 points and will hit.  If he’s showing a 7, you’ll assume he’s going to stand.   If he’s showing an 8, your goal is to beat 18, not push for 21.

That’s it.  If you do that, you’ll come within a couple of points of even odds against the house.  Google “blackjack basic strategy” if you want to improve this.

Even odds isn’t good enough.

Card Counting

Counting cards sounds tough.  Rain Man tough.

It’s not, but you’ll want to practice at home a bit before you try it in the really real world.

The rules are simple:

1. Cards 2-6 are worth 1 point.

2.  The 10, jack, queen, king, and ace are worth -1.

3.  For every card that is played, keep track of that score.   This is a running score across multiple hands until the deck is replaced or shuffled, so don’t stop at a new deal.

4.  Divide the running score by the number of decks remaining in the shoe.  If there are approximated 150 cards in the dealer-thingy, that’s 3 decks, so divide by 3.   If your running score is 18, that means the number your playing against is 6.   If the casino is using a continuous-shuffling thingy, forget counting the cards.

That’s it.   You’re never adding or subtracting more than a one, and you’re doing that against a number that tends to stay pretty low.

How do you use that, you ask?  Easy.

When the score is up, bet higher.  If it’s low or negative, bet lower.   The higher the number, the higher your bets.   If you’ve got a 5, a 6, or more, bet as much as you are comfortable with.  If your playing score is low or negative, bet close to the table minimum.

Why does this work?

A higher score indicates that the main assumption of the super basic strategy is more likely to be true.  When you’ve got a score of 10, you know a lot of lower-value cards have already hit the table, so it’s safer to assume that the dealer’s card is worth 10.

You don’t change anything about the way you play each hand, you just change the way you bet each hand.   Counting cards doesn’t tell you specifically what’s going to happen during each hand, it just tackles the statistics of the game.  It moves the odds in your favor, by up to 2 or 3 percent.    Over one hand, this won’t help, so don’t sweat losing a hand here and there.   Over an entire shoe of hands, you should be able to steadily win more than you lose.

And, as Brian Brushwood says, in the course of your life, very few things make a cooler story than getting kicked out of a casino for counting cards.

Do you play in casinos?  Ever tried to cheat?

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Changing Our Situation

Finance

In September 2005, I bought my car, a Chrysler Pacifica.  I got it on a loan.   Two months later–seven years ago this month–I was told I’d be laid off at the end of the year.

Two weeks ago, we bought a Chevy Tahoe with a loan.   Last Monday, my wife was permanently laid off after 12 years with her company.   She was told that, if her department opened back up, she’d be welcome to reapply for her job and start as a new employee.

Car loans mean layoffs at my house.

Last Tuesday, I got a formal offer for a new job.  I accepted.

I am now a full month away from knowing exactly what my semi-monthly paychecks will be.  My wife is getting her final paycheck later this week, which will include a week of severance pay.

For the first time in a number of years, I don’t know what my income looks like.   I don’t have a clear long-term picture or a good short-term picture.

I’m not worried.

For the first time in my life, I’m not living paycheck-to-paycheck.  Having a couple of pay periods act wonky isn’t going to hurt.   Yes, we are going to cut back, but we can manage for a few months without worry.  We aren’t going to sweat over putting food on the table.

That is an incredible feeling.