When you give your email address to a website, you hope that they don't sell or trade your address to a bunch of spammers. Well if they do, here is a simple way to see what sites are responsible for what particular piece of email. This requires you have a Gmail account.
If your Gmail login name was username@gmail.com and you went to samplesite.com to fill out a registration form, instead of just entering username@gmail.com as your email, enter it as username+samplesitecom@gmail.com instead. When Gmail sees a "+" in an email address, it uses all the characters to the left of the plus sign to know who to send it to. In this example it would still send it to username@gmail.com.
Now whats cool is if you search Gmail for username+samplesitecom, you will see all massages that were sent to that email address.
To see who is responsible for sending a specific message click the Show Details link and you will see the complete address.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Free 411 Directory Assistance through Google
Here is a quick way to save money. Instead of dialing 411, dial 1-800-466-4411 to reach Google's free service. I just tried it out, and it worked perfectly. Here is some information taken from Google's site:
Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone.
To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.
Using this service, you can:
- search for a local business by name or category.
You can say "Giovanni's Pizzeria" or just "pizza". - get connected to the business, free of charge.
- get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
Just say "text message".
And it's free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider.
Note: Google Voice Local Search is still in its experimental stage. It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. We’re fine-tuning the service to get better at recognizing your requests. It’s currently only available in English, in the US, for US business listings.
Technorati tags:
411, directory assistance, google, google labs, telephone directory, tools
Money Market Account with 6.00% APY at HSBC
HSBC is offering a money market account with 6.00% APY through April 30th.
Here is the link.
Technorati Tags:money market, account, best accounts, interest, savings, hsbc
What to do with your tax refund
Tax day is upon us yet again (although the IRS did just give us a 48-hour extension due to storms in the northeast). Many of us will be receiving tax refunds. What are the best uses for this influx of cash? Here are some suggestions:
Technorati tags:
capital one, filing extension, ira, money market, mortgage, prepayment penalty, refund, roth ira, tax, taxes
- Splurge. Buy yourself something nice. Sometimes you do deserve to treat yourself.
- Pay off your highest interest rate credit card
- Make an extra mortgage payment if you are not subject to prepayment penalties
Per this Motley Fool article, "Making one extra payment a year on a 30-year, 6.5 percent fixed-rate mortgage will shave more than $60,000 in interest and six years off the life of a $200,000 loan. " - Keep a stash of cash for emergencies.
Your best option is a highly liquid and high-yielding money market account. Try Capital One which as of today offers a 5.0% APY. - Open a Roth IRA account and turn you refund into $17,000!
Per this Motley Fool article, "If you invest $2,500 -- last year's average refund amount -- and earn an 8 percent average annual return over 25 years, you end up with $17,121. It's as easy as 1-2-IRA. "
Technorati tags:
capital one, filing extension, ira, money market, mortgage, prepayment penalty, refund, roth ira, tax, taxes
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Day Trading: How Risky Is It?
I visited my brother-in-law the other day, and he told me about how he has been day trading stocks since January. My initial thought is that this is a rather foolhardy thing to do, since it is considered by many to be quite risky. His current strategy is to focus on one stock only, Exxon (XOM). He watches this stock all day and trades several times a day. Year-to-date he has made approximately $23,000 after trading fees from Scottrade.
My brother-in-laws disclosure makes me ask some questions regarding day trading:
- How risky is it? What is the general consensus regarding this risk?
- Do people exist that consistently beat the market?
- How do you account for your gains and losses with regard to taxes?
- What is the most cost-effective platform for day trading?
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has this to say about day trading:
“Day traders rapidly buy and sell stocks throughout the day in the hope that their stocks will continue climbing or falling in value for the seconds to minutes they own the stock, allowing them to lock in quick profits. Day trading is extremely risky and can result in substantial financial losses in a very short period of time.”
The Wikipedia entry for day trading gives some more precise figures with regard to risk:
“It is commonly stated that 80-90% of day traders lose money. An analysis of the Taiwanese stock market suggests that ‘less than 20% of day traders earn profits net of transaction costs’.[5]”
It is telling that among legendary investors, such as Warren Buffet or Peter Lynch, there is not a day trader. Investopedia sums up the risk aspect of day trading nicely:
“Although it is becoming increasingly popular among inexperienced traders, it should be left primarily to those with the skills and resources needed to succeed.”
This will conclude my post on day trading for today. I will address the tax aspects and trading platforms in a later post.
Technorati tags:
day trading, Exxon, investing, investors, losses, Scottrade, SEC, stock, stock market, taxes, XOM
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Online Converters
Check out this link for a list of online converters. With these tools you can convert .pdf documents, images, audio, and video files to different formats without having to install any software.
Some examples:
Media-Convert can deal with many formats. Most important are Text, HTML, XHTML, Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF, PS, Open Office, Star Writer, CSV, dBase, Microsoft Excel, Pocket Excel, Lotus 123, Quattro Pro, Star Calc, Open Office, MathML, Open Office Formeln, Powerpoint. Besides: Video and Audio-formats.
This tool generates HTML, XHTML, SGML, LaTeX, Lout, Man Page, MoinMoin, MagicPoint and PageMaker-documents out of a single plain text-file with minimal markup.
Zamzar supports conversion between a wide variety of different file formats. Many conversion options, among them 11 document formats, 8 image formats, 9 audio formats and 12 video formats.
Technorati tags:
converter, html, media , pdf, rss, tools
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)