Everybody Loves Your Money

Every now and then I like to bring back a post from long ago for newer readers that haven’t browsed through the depths of ELYM. I could make up some corny story about how the posts have contacted me in my sleep asking for more attention, but, I won’t because that really is corny. So, just check out the links and pretend you are interested:

Lifestyles of the Not so Rich and Famous
Sometimes it’s better to rent an asset than own it.

Free Things on the Web that are Cool
I love free things on the web, especially when they are useful.

What Would Happen if Everyone Saved 10% of their Income?
It’s a heck of a question. What do you think? What would happen to our economy?

Teach your Kids to be Smart with Money
Just what it says. You have to lead by example.

How many ways can you make a cheap phone call these days? A LOT of people use their cel phone minutes to make long distance calls. I’m not a huge fan of doing that simply because it seems like every tenth word doesn’t come through very well.

So, what to do, what to do. You can be like me and sign up for Vonage and get a little extra life out of your broadband connection. And since Comcast has raised my speed up to 6 megabit, I’ve got lots to use. Too bad they wouldn’t take me up on my offer to give me a slower connection for less money. Anyway, Vonage turned out to be one of those decisions that you realize you made incorrectly, after the fact. I haven’t used Vonage NEARLY enough to justify it’s cost. It’s been nice to have a second line, but we aren’t using nearly enough minutes. Luckily I opted for their cheap plan of $15 per month for 500 minutes instead of their unlimited. I reasoned that I probably wouldn’t even reach 500 minutes and if I did, their per minute cost would have still allowed me to talk for almost 750 minutes before I reached the cost of an unlimited plan.

So, I’ve decided to cancel my Vonage account. Instead, I’m going to use my Skype account and just put $10 in. That will give me 500 minutes of Skype “out” calls (where I can call any regular phone from my PC, including England) and no monthly charge. I’ve tried it and the quality is better than Vonage. I have a great small headset for use with it and Googletalk.