Everybody Loves Your Money

So, I’m sitting here having my morning coffee and reading the Sunday paper. Safeway (grocery chain) has a full page ad in the paper that says if you spend $50 in their store, you can get an extra 3 cents off per gallon of gas. If you car holds 15 gallons of gas, that’s a whopping $.45. So, what is that? Less than a 1 percent discount? Safeway is rather expensive anyway, compared to some of the discount grocers.

As I’m reading this paper and pondering how ridiculous that promotion is from a value standpoint, a commercial comes on the TV that says you can earn your credit card rewards quicker with CITI. Their example is a free blender. So, if I charge a bunch of money on my credit card, they’ll give me a blender? I personally think there is something wrong in our society when consumers are spending a bunch of money in order to get small kitchen appliances.

Why are consumers so illogical when it comes to things like this? Now, a rewards card that pays you cash back when you use it for only things that you were going to purchase anyway, isn’t a bad idea. I don’t do it, but I know a lot of the personal finance bloggers out here are doing it. I only have one VISA card through my credit union. The rates and fees are the best around (as a general rule) and I don’t carry a balance anyway, so I’m not all that concerned about the rate. Anyway, I just wish, instead of trying to follow along with all these finance companies latest gimmicks, people would spend a little more time figuring out how to avoid the cards in the first place. Oh well, I guess that’s just the way it is.

This is a great article that lists the different debt levels for mortgages, cars, consumer credit, student loans etc. The numbers are pretty darned high. I’m glad that we aren’t staring at any of these numbers in our house (with the exception of the mortgage). Anyway, interesting to read through. Check it out here:

http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/25/pf/millionaire/q_debtstackup/index.htm

I read an article about people that are trying to flip real estate. It just reinforces my opinion that, even with real estate prices as high as they are, you still need a clue to make money in real estate. The article makes a couple good points though about the fact that with so many people buying properties to hold either short term, or long term, it’s creating an excess supply of rentals out there. Some areas are seeing rental rates drop. If home prices start to flatten out and the rental market continues to be flush with lots of available rentals, the risk of trying to buy and sell homes just shoots straight up. Here’s the link to the article:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/CSM/story?id=804255

Anyway, it’s decent reading. I’ve been really wanting to get another piece of real estate, but I’m really concerned about whether I want the risk. I may just buy a piece of property that I want to use later, just to lock it in at today’s price. (I’m thinking land that I can get my friend to build me a place on for retirement)