Money Blue Book

Well Valentine’s Day is here again and it’s time to carry out the age old tradition of sending flowers to that special girl in your life. While women today frequently send flowers as well, I think the great majority of gift flowers purchased for Valentine’s Day are made by men for their love crush, their girlfriends, or for their wives. Anyway you look at it – women love flowers – the commercially universal symbol of love (that and diamonds). They love to receive them, look at them, show them off to friends and co-workers, and display them on their desks for all to see (I see it all the time). Today, flowers make great presents for any occasion, and they’re no longer just for the major holidays and birthdays anymore either.

Since giving flowers during those special holidays is almost a given, for the guys, if you really want to score bonus points, try sending your special lady flowers for no special reason at all – it’s even better when she’s not expecting them. That will really brighten her day. Not that I am an expert in the flower-sending department or even have that extensive of an experience in wooing girls with flowers, but I’ve done it before – through both traditional local florists and through online flower delivery services. Both techniques have always yielded great results.

Flowers Are Expensive, But Buying and Sending Them Doesn’t Have To Break The Bank

Now one of the biggest gripes with sending flower arrangements as gifts is that they’re usually quite expensive. Flowers don’t come cheap and particularly around special holiday occasions such as Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, and Christmas, flower prices usually sell at hefty premiums during those times. Prices can double during these high demand seasonal periods the closer you get to those special holidays. It would be nice to be able to save money by waiting till it’s off peak, but sometimes you just can’t avoid the premium periods.

But as the bearer of flowers, we do have two main options – we can either 1) buy the flowers at a cheaper price at the grocery store or local florist shop, or 2) we can choose to order them online and have them delivered. I personally like both options but for different reasons. Buying flowers at your local supermarket is definitely the most cost effective way to go if you have the time to browse and choose, as well as personally deliver the gift. If you don’t have the time to visit or browse the store’s flower selection, or if the distance between you and the intended recipient is too prohibitive, you can choose to place the order through an online florist and have it conveniently delivered.

While you may be able to save time and effort by ordering online, it’s definitely going to cost a bit more. To give you an idea of what buying flowers online will cost you compared to buying them at your local brick and mortar flower shop: a dozen roses complete with a decorative vase at the supermarket will usually fetch about $20-$35 on Valentine’s day; at a local florist they will usually go for a bit higher at around $40-60; and online they will usually cost upwards of $70-90 or more, although plenty of online flower deals, offers, and coupon codes abound. Another option is to buy them at a discount warehouse retailer like Costco, Sam’s Club, or even Walmart where flowers are frequently sold at great discounts or near wholesale prices. Costco especially offers a wide array of colorful but very affordably priced flower varieties – if you don’t mind doing a little bit of arranging yourself.

If you decide to go with time saver route, here are 10 Popular Online Florists to help you decide. To compare them, I’ve listed each online shop’s cheapest and most affordable price for a dozen long stem red roses, excluding the cost of shipping and any special holiday surcharges. The prices may vary depending on proximity to a peak demand holiday. Keep in mind that the prices listed below are only for comparison purposes and represent last minute premium prices for Valentine’s Day – 2008 . Flower prices are likely to be much lower during any other time (could be almost 25-40% lower).

Update: Read About The Possibility Of A 2009 Second Stimulus Check

With both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate having nodded their respective approvals of the nearly $160 billion economic stimulus package (that’s “B’ as in Billion), the bill has finally been signed, sealed, and delivered to President Bush for final approval. The President has already indicated that he will quickly sign the economic aid into law – so I believe the rebate checks will soon be on their way to a mailbox or direct deposit account near you.

I shall try to explain how the 2008 economic stimulus package will work and how much you can expect to receive in the way of a rebate check.

1) Why Are We Getting A Tax Rebate Check?

The Tax Rebate Check is part of the U.S. government’s emergency pro-growth economic stimulus plan to prevent the U.S. economy from stalling out and entering a period of prolonged recession. Due to the recent slowdown in the economy caused by housing bubble problems and subprime mortgage related issues, the federal government wants to keep the economy on the up and up by putting money into the hands of U.S. consumers to encourage increased consumer spending. Like jump starting a car, the government wants to hand consumers extra wads of cash to encourage increased business investment and consumer activity. Surveys have indicated that at least half of consumers intend to use the money to pay down existing debt, while the other half intends to either save or spent it on extra things. Personally, I plan to save my economic stimulus check if I qualify for one. While the stimulus plan also provides some business incentives, I will only focus on the consumer side tax rebate checks at this time.

2) How Does Qualifying For And Receiving A 2008 Tax Rebate Check Affect And Relate To My 2007 and 2008 Tax Returns?

The economic stimulus tax rebate is counted as a tax credit against your future 2008 tax bill. However, you are entitled to the full qualified rebate amount when you file your 2007 tax return by the April 15, 2008 deadline. Qualification to receiving it now will be based on your 2007 income information. Taxpayers should not be concerned that the tax rebate is only a mere future credit that has been accelerated into the present in terms of timetable. The economic stimulus tax rebate is a true credit for qualified taxpayers (free money essentially). The rebate amount that you receive now will not be used to offset any of your future income tax bill or any anticipated refund checks from filing your future 2008 tax return on April 15, 2009.

The economic stimulus plan is flexible and permits taxpayers to either file their tax return on April 15, 2008 and get their rebate checks now (the preferred route), or wait till April 15, 2009 to file their 2008 tax return and get their rebate checks then. Note that even if you file now and qualify for a rebate check, and your status changes and you become eligible for a larger rebate when you file your 2008 tax return next year, you can still claim the positive difference at that time. In addition, you will not have to give back any rebate money already received even if your status change causes you to later qualify for a lesser amount for tax year 2008 when you file in 2009.

3) Who Will Get A Tax Rebate Check and How Much Will I Receive?

The economic stimulus tax rebate checks are intended to go into the hands of low to middle income Americans (those who are supposedly more inclined to spend them immediately). Thus while most ordinary taxpayers will qualify for a stimulus check, those who make a lot of money are likely to be partially or fully phased out of receiving a rebate.

The amount of your tax rebate will be based on your 2007 federal income tax return’s adjusted gross income (AGI), which is not just your annual salary. Your AGI includes all income sources including wages, salaries, tips, interest, alimony paid to you, and dividends, offset by any specific business, or capital gains or losses – but it does not include the personal exemption, or any standard or itemized deductions. You are entitled to receive the full rebate amount unless your adjusted gross income exceeds a certain threshold, in which case you will either receive a reduced rebate or be entirely excluded from receiving one at all if your income is simply too high. However, the economic stimulus package is intended to cover many people and nearly 130 million Americans are expected to qualify for at least part or all of their entitled tax rebate check.

The proposed plan that is expected to be approved will provide one time check rebates of up to $600 for individuals or $1,200 for couples, along with an additional $300 for each child (classified as dependents under the age of 17). Low income people, including retirees on Social Security or Veterans disability benefits who earned at least $3,000 will receive checks of $300. Low to middle income people including retirees who made enough to pay taxes will receive higher tax rebates up to their net tax liability, limited only by their AGI. But so long as you paid taxes and made ($3,000 or more a year but less than $75,000 as a single individual), or ($3,000 or more, but less than $150,000 a year as a married couple), you will be entitled to the full tax rebate check.

If you exceed the adjusted income threshold, you may still get a rebate, but it will be reduced by 5 percent of the amount you earned above the adjusted gross income limits of $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for couples. Thus for example: A single filer with no children and an adjusted gross income of $80,000 ($5,000 over the limit), will see his or her rebate check reduced by $250 (5% of $5,000), and will receive a check for $350, instead of the full $600. Rebate checks will phase out completely for single filers who earn over $87,000 and for couples who earn over $174,000.

4) Who Is Excluded From Receiving An Economic Stimulus Rebate Check?

If you are a single individual who earned more than $87,000, or if you are a married couple that earned over $174,000 for the year, you are likely excluded from receiving a rebate check, unless you can otherwise claim any extra child rebates. Keep in mind that the child rebates can also be phased depending on how much your adjusted gross income exceeds the income threshold.

If you’re a young college student who had earned income for 2007 but are claimed as a dependent under your parent’s tax return, you are ineligible for the tax rebate as well.

Under the Senate approved proposal, illegal immigrants will also not be eligible to receive tax rebate checks for obvious reasons.

5) What Do I Have To Do To Get My Tax Rebate Check?

To get your tax rebate check now, you must file your 2007 federal tax return (either a form 1040 or 1040 EZ) by the April 15, 2008 filing deadline. Or you can wait until April 15, 2009 to file your 2008 tax return and obtain it then (although, why would you want to wait until then?). I recommend using a low cost online tax preparation program such as Turbo Tax or Tax Cut to assist you (both are reasonably priced and provide accurate results). Even if you don’t usually file a tax return because you don’t earn enough to owe taxes like some retirees or veterans on disability, you will still need to file a 2007 tax return in order to receive the economic stimulus check.

6) When Can I Expect To Receive My Tax Rebate Check?

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to start issuing the rebate checks starting May 2008 to qualified recipients who properly and timely submit their tax returns by the April 15, 2008 filing deadline. If you miss the annual tax filing deadline or request a filing extension, it is possible you won’t receive your rebate check until the end of the year (thus I suggest you file by April 15, 2008 – mark it on your calendar and circle it!)

7) Where Can I Get More Information About The Tax Rebate?

To get official answers to your tax rebate concerns and queries, you should check the official IRS website link on the subject. Please take a look at my post on obtaining official Answers To 2008 Economic Stimulus Questions. For an unofficial response however, you can try posting your comments or questions here.

Updated Note: The IRS has released the official Economic Stimulus Payment Schedule.

If there’s one group of zealots you never want to upset, it’s the eBay sellers. Ever since eBay announced several key changes to its pricing and feedback policies over a week ago, eBay sellers have been flipping out and storming the discussion forums to express their outrage over the impending doom and gloom. A great number of them have become so upset that they’ve banded together to plot a futile boycott of eBay’s auction services around the February 20, 2008 launch date to protest the new fee hikes and feedback policy changes.

Here is an overview of the key controversial eBay pricing and system changes that have sparked such emotional reactions as well as my own thoughts on the matter. You can view the actual eBay price structure changes (here).

1) Listing Prices Will Be Reduced But Final Value Fees Will Be Increased
The new eBay pricing changes will cause up front listing costs such as Insertion Fees and Fixed Price Listings to be reduced. This upfront listing fee reduction is to encourage more listings since eBay auctions have been stagnant for years now as auction interest has waned. Although it used to come at a small cost, eBay now plans to make Gallery picture listing free – a nice free addition that will save a few cents and dollars for some, but it’s basically a trivial bonus. It’s nothing that will greatly benefit eBay sellers, but with the way eBay has been cleverly marketing the changes by plastering the “lower fee!” mantra everywhere on its fee changes announcement, it’s clear eBay wants to make the listing price reductions a big deal. But I don’t think they are – the savings are paltry and unsubstantial.

Of course, as a profit driven business giant, eBay is not a charity, so with one price drop it’s obviously bound to raise prices elsewhere. To counter the listing fee reduction, eBay plans to jack up the Final Value Fees. Unfortunately, the increase in Final Value Fees will probably become the biggest profit killer for many eBay sellers – dramatically cutting into their profit margins. Insertion prices were never all that high to begin with so reducing them isn’t providing much of a cost savings for sellers. It’s always been the Final Value Fees that have chomped into the bulk of seller profits.

2) Sellers Will No Longer Be Able To Leave Negative Feedback For Buyers
Another substantial change in eBay’s new feedback policy is that sellers will no longer be able to post negative feedback or comment about their buyers in the future. The original purpose of the innovative eBay feedback system was to retain a history and honest record of member experiences for the future benefit of all prospective buyers and sellers. However, in the last few years, the system has deteriorated and become broken, because most buyers have grown afraid of leaving honest and accurate feedback for the seller due to the fear of negative feedback retaliation.

Even as an occasional eBay seller, I can attest to the existence of negative feedback retaliation. After the completion of every auction, as the seller, I would always solicit the buyer’s feedback submission before I would submit my own. This was to preserve my right and ability to retaliate with negative feedback if the buyer arbitrarily or unreasonably posted negative comments to my seller’s profile. Obviously without the ability to submit negative comments for the buyer, my options as a seller would become more limited as I would become subject to the whims and demands of unscrupulous buyers. To remedy this problem, eBay would need to do a better job of policing seller and buyer complaints. To protect sellers, eBay has indicated that it plans to regulate the system better against buyers having badly and has indicated plans to retroactively remove all neutral and negative feedback left by a particular buyer should the buyer’s account ever be suspended for eBay program violations.

As an eBay buyer, I wholeheartedly applaud the feedback changes. While I don’t agree with the pricing changes, I think the feedback policy modifications were sorely needed and will go a long way in improving buyer confidence in the accuracy of future eBay feedback ratings.

3) eBay Powersellers Will Become More Powerful
Under the new eBay policy changes, the most reliable and trustworthy Powersellers will enjoy new perks including greater Final Value listing price discounts up to nearly 15% off depending on their additional detailed seller ratings. Also, eBay intends to offer those high volume sellers that maintain an excellent customer rating greater exposure among the auction listings by providing them higher visibility under its Best Match search results. Of course I think this greater exposure for the most trusted sellers will help improve overall buyer experience by rewarding good sellers and encouraging good behavior. This one is actually a good improvement.

Final Thoughts About the eBay Policy Changes and Threats Of Boycott

Despite complaints about the new policy changes, the truth of the matter is, most eBay sellers can’t afford to lose their eBay business traffic. Any boycott would hurt the individual strikers more than it would ever hurt a multi billion dollar company like eBay. While there is no other online auction service that can even come close to the reach and traffic scale that eBay can provide, there are a few growing and viable alternatives out there like Amazon and Craigslist, that some dissatisfied eBayer sellers are starting to turn to. Amazon has indeed enjoyed great success lately despite its more regulated selling policies. Whether this continued success will be at the perpetual expense of eBay remains to be seen.

Updated List Of The Best Airline Miles Credit Card Offers (Free Miles For Free Flights)

One of the simplest ways to save money on airline tickets is to take advantage of free frequent flyer mile offers – namely the credit card bonus rewards and free miles that many airline miles credit card issuers promote to attract new customers. Most of the time, the instant bonus miles are enough for a free domestic roundtrip flight or at least enough to tip you over the mileage limit if you are just short. For those interested in earning free frequent flier miles with each card purchase, please view my list of the best airline miles credit cards.

Over the years, I’ve taken advantage of free frequent flyer mile bonuses and airline credit cards to earn free flights and air travel tickets. A while back I needed to book a flight but was just shy of the free flight limit. Rather than going ahead and paying the $200-$300 for the ticket, I decided to apply for the airline’s own branded credit card to take advantage of the free mileage offers. While some of these airline credit cards have an annual fee, their introductory sign-up terms usually waive the fee for the first year. If you aren’t looking to get a free domestic ticket but instead are trying to save up for an expensive international flight, be sure to keep track of your frequent flyer miles expiration dates.

Here, I’ve gathered a list of all the airline mile credit card offers available out there, along with their current free airline mileage promotions. I’ve also included the miles needed to redeem an economy class domestic ticket for each particular airline program.

Earn Free Frequent Flyer Miles Upon Sign Up – Travel Rewards Earned Are Good For Any Airline

1. Chase Sapphire - 10,000 bonus points after the first purchase. You also earn 1 point for every dollar you spend and 2x points on all airfare booked through the Travel Booking Tool. Up to 10 bonus points per dollar when you shop online at the Ultimate Rewards Mall. No annual fee. There are no blackout dates or travel restrictions when you use your points for airline tickets on most major airlines, any class. You can also purchase flights with both point and dollar values so you can choose how many points you want to use and pay for the rest in cash.
2. American Express Starwood Preferred® – Earn 10,000 miles good towards the frequent flyer programs of over 30 major airlines. With the extra 6 month spending incentives, you can potentially earn up to 50,000 bonus miles in 6 months. The $45 annual fee is waived for the first year. I personally think it’s the most versatile and best travel credit card available.
3. Discover Card Miles Card – 12,000 miles for any airline. No annual fee.
4. Citi Premier Pass Elite Level Card – 20,000 bonus points after $600 in purchases made within 3 months of account opening. There is a $75 annual fee.

Earn Free Miles For Specific Airline Frequent Flyer Reward Programs Upon Sign Up (Sorted By Airline)

1. Alaska Airlines – Visa Signature Card – 20,000 free Bonus Miles. Free award travel begins at just 20,000 miles. You can earn and redeem miles for 10 airline partners that include (Air France, American Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta, Horizon Air, Northwest, and Quantas). There is a $75 annual fee.
2. American Airlines – Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage® World MasterCard – 25,000 AAdvantage ® bonus miles after you make $750 in purchases within 4 months. 25,000 miles is required for an economy domestic ticket on American Airlines. The $85 annual fee is waived the first year.
3. American Airlines – Citi Gold AAdvantage® World MasterCard – 15,000 AAdvantage ® bonus miles after you make $750 in purchases within 4 months. 25,000 miles is needed to redeem for an economy domestic ticket on American Airlines. The $50 annual is waived the first year.
4. American Airlines – CitiBusiness AAdvantage® – 25,000 AAdvantage ® free bonus miles after you make $750 in purchases. With this Citi Business card offer designed for those who travel regularly on American Airlines and would like to earn free travel for business-related expenses, cardholders can earn 1 mile rewards for every $1 spent, and enjoy mileage points that never expire.
5. Delta Airlines – Amex Delta Reserve Card – Earn up to 10,000 Medallion Qualification Miles with your first purchase. Spend $30,000 in a calendar year and you can earn a boost of 15,000 MQM’s and 15,000 bonus miles. With the card, travelers enjoy complimentary Crown Room Club Access and free annual domestic companion certificates, which can be used for first class airfares or coach class tickets.
6. Delta Air – Amex SkyMiles® Platinum Card – Earn 20,000 bonus Delta SkyMiles after your first purchase with American Express along with 5,000 Medallion Qualification Miles for Elite travel status. Miles never expire and there is no mileage limit. The annual fee is $150 unless you are also a basic card member of a domestic American Express consumer card account that has an annual fee greater than or equal to $55, in which case the annual fee is $95.
7. Delta Air – Amex SkyMiles® Gold Card – Earn 20,000 Delta SkyMiles after your first purchase with American Express. 25,000 miles is required for a free economy ticket through Delta and its partner airlines that include Air France, Continental, Northwest, and Korean Air. The $95 annual fee is waived the first year.
8. Hawaiian Airlines – Visa Platinum – 10,000 Bonus miles. There is a $50 annual fee.
9. JetBlue – Credit Card from American Express – 50 TrueBlue points with your first purchase. 100 TrueBlue points is needed for a free domestic ticket. There is a $40 annual fee.
10. Northwest Airlines – WorldPerks Visa Signature Card – 15,000 WorldPerks miles with your first purchase. 25,000 miles is needed for a free domestic ticket on Northwest Airlines or any other WorldPerks partner airline. There is a $55 annual fee.
11. Northwest Airlines – WorldPerks Visa Platinum Card – 10,000 WorldPerks miles with your first purchase. There is also a $55 annual fee.
12. Southwest Airlines – Rapid Rewards Signature Visa Card - Earn up to 16 Rapid Rewards credits (8 free bonus credits after your first purchase and another 8 for eligible balance transfers) – Enough for a free round trip flight. There is a $59 annual fee.
13. Southwest Airlines – Rapid Rewards Visa Signature Business Card – Earn up to 16 Rapid Rewards credits – Enough for a free round trip reward. There is also a $59 annual fee.
14. United Airlines – Mileage Plus Signature Visa Card – 21,000 United bonus miles with your first purchase. 50,000 miles is needed for a domestic ticket on United Airlines. There is a $60 annual fee.
15. United Airlines – Mileage Plus Platinum Business Card – 20,000 United miles after your first purchase. The $75 annual fee is waived the first year.
16. Virgin Atlantic Airlines – Virgin Amex Black Card From Bank of America – 20,000 instant Virgin Atlantic Flyer Club miles after your first purchase with the Black American Express card from BoA. Get 7,500 anniversary Flyer Club miles after spending $15,000 in the first year, and earn another free 7,500 Flyer Club miles after spending $25,000 in net purchases. Earn free frequent flyer miles with every purchase with no limit to the number of miles you can earn.
17. Virgin Atlantic Airlines – Virgin Amex White Card From Bank of America – 12,500 instant Virgin Atlantic Flyer Club miles after your first purchase. Get 2,500 anniversary Flyer Club miles after spending $5,000 in the first year, and earn another free 5,000 Flyer Club miles after spending $15,000 in net purchases. You also get free mileage rewards for all purchases.