Hijinks Inc.

Author: Aaron Nelsen

  • Rate Chasing

    eTrade (along with most other banks) recently dropped their interest rates to 4.70% from 5.05%, so I set out to find a new bank to stash my money with. I’ll still do all my stock trading with eTrade, but I’ll move the bulk of my savings over to my new account.

    Enter AmTrust Direct, boasting an interest rate of 5.36% APY and the ability to transfer money to and from my current external accounts (limited to six transfers a month). It’s not the most flexible account, but its certainly not the worst. No minimum balance requirements either.
    After doing some research and finding mostly positive reviews of AmTrust Direct, I’ve decided to open an account there later this week.

  • Cutting Monthly Costs

    Take an hour, sit down and go through your monthly expenses, gather your bills from the past few months and figure out what you can cut out in order to save yourself money. For example, I canceled my satellite radio, and switched to a text messaging plan with fewer monthly texts to save money a total of $23.75 a month.
    The more you’re willing to sacrifice the more you can save, some things you may consider for cutting costs

    • Cable
    • Online gaming (Xbox live, WoW, etc)
    • Magazine/newspaper subscriptions
    • Movie rental subscriptions (Netflix, Blockbuster Online)
    • Gym membership you never use

    Of course with things like Blockbuster online, you might actually be saving yourself money instead of renting locally or going to the movies in theater, so take that into account.

    Next, take that money you were already spending each month and put it into a savings account (see: Longterm Savings Growth).

  • Passive Income

    As a freelancer my income is anything but steady, so in recent weeks I’ve undertaken the task of trying to generate some passive income through various projects. I’ll be posting a monthly report on how much I make through passive income, but first, here’s an overview of where my passive income will be (hopefully) coming from.

    This Blog:
    The concept is simple, write about random things I have an opinion on, toss in a few Google Ads and hope somebody clicks… However, this money is split between myself and my fellow bloggers, so I doubt it’ll generate that much income.

    Google Adsense:
    I run a random forum which I spend 3 minutes a week actually running, and again it has some Google Ads up on it, it currently makes enough to pay for its hosting (and the hosting of this site).

    LinkWorth:
    I’ll be using LinkWorth to sell some text links on various sites that I run.

    Revver:
    We’ll see just how many cents can be made uploading random videos to Revver.

    Dividends:
    I have a few investments that pay out dividends, one monthly, the rest quarterly. I’ll be looking to add several more dividend stocks over the next 3-6 months.

    Interest:
    Much like dividends, this could be considered cheating… but what the hey.

    Cash Back:
    My credit card gives me “rewards” for spending money, and while I don’t plan on spending more money just to earn rewards, it’s a nice bonus. To take advantage, I’ve moved as many of my bills as I can over to my Chase card, I have to pay them anyway, so why not earn a little cash back?

  • Apple hits a new 52 week high

    Less than a week after hitting a 52 week high, Apple has done it again, this time closing at $161.45

    Apple Chart

    All this despite the recent problems with their new iMacs freezing up, iPod touch screen problems, etc…

  • Leopard coming Oct. 26th?

    AppleInsider is reporting that Apple may be shipping it’s latest installment of OS X this month on the 26th.

    While sources have requested that we not go into detail regarding the specific measures being put into place, they say the announcements are likely to arrive any time between the 22nd and 27th of the month.

    Obviously, such a timeframe would coincide with Apple’s self-imposed release schedule for Mac OS X Leopard, which the company — after having delayed the software once — has promised for “October.”

    As of Wednesday evening, the source code to Leopard had not yet been frozen and a Gold Master had not yet been declared. However, the operating system in recent weeks has inched closer to this status with the last full builds including only one known issue.

    Historically, Apple has tapped the final Friday of the month to roll out its major operating system overhauls. For instance, it launched Mac OS X Tiger on the eve of Friday, April 29, 2005.

    Sources have yet to rule out the possibility that Leopard would be accompanied by additional announcements from the Cupertino-based company.

    You can pre-order a copy over on Amazon.com for $129