Archive

Washington Mutual Online Banking Review

Published
by
andrewknight
on January 3, 2008
in Personal Finance
. 1 Comment

Back in 2000 I started banking with a little known startup called Lighthouse Bank out of Waltham MA. They were one of the first banks to offer no fee checking, online banking, and ATM reimbursement fees. They had fantastic customer service and were great to work with but they started putting minimums in place. When I moved to Vermont I decided to leave lighthouse and join a local bank (Citizens) that also had online banking. At the same time, I also discovered the new found world of high yield online savings accounts and opened an account with Emigrant Direct. This setup worked great as I had local ATM’s, a free checking and an online savings account earning 5%. The only downside was I had a 3 day delay between transfers.

When I moved to Atlanta it was time to look for a new bank. Here are the key things I look for:

  • Free checking with no minimum and no fee’s unless I do something stupid like bounce a check.
  • Outstanding online interface to manage all my accounts. I have never balanced a check book and don’t plan on starting any time soon!
  • Plenty of local ATM’s and ideally a branch close to home.
  • High yield online savings account.
  • Free checks is a nice bonus although I write about 5 a year
  • Free online bill pay
  • Great customer service with short wait times in the branch or on the phone.

When I started looking around I found that Washington Mutual met all of my criteria. Could a bank really do everything I was looking for??? After 2 years the answer is a resounding YES! WaMu is fantastic! I can’t recommend them enough! I have had nothing but a great experience with them and encourage everybody to sign up for accounts. Make sure you sign up online as they only offer the high yield Savings Account online. There is also a branch right across the street so that makes them super convenient as well!

Sears and Spyware

Published
by
andrewknight
on January 2, 2008
in Ecommerce
. 0 Comments

This post detailing Sears’ use of tracking software is unbelievable! Sears is one of my top 5 competitors so I follow them pretty closely and this is big news. The VP’s response and the counterpoints are even more amazing.

You might have yourself covered from a legal perspective (page 10 of a 26 page privacy policy) but you are undermining your customers. People take privacy seriously. If you are going to install tracking software that monitors all internet behavior it better be explicit, in 20 point font, with a VERY clear OPT IN. With that said, I would never have approved something like this. I wonder what they were doing with the data and if they were getting any value out of it.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to pull this down

Updating Your Ressume

Published
by
andrewknight
on January 2, 2008
in Career Coaching
. 0 Comments

During my senior year at BC we had a speaker series where alums would come and speak about various career topics. One of the best pieces of advice I got from that series was to to make sure you update our resume once a year. Updating your resume can seem like a chore, but it is essential to go through the exercise and note your accomplishments. As we kick off the new year make sure you have a current copy of your resume. You never know when a recruiter is going to call you with the next hot job!

Happy New Year!

Published
by
andrewknight
on January 1, 2008
in Purely Personal
. 0 Comments

Wanted to take a minute and wish everybody a happy new year! Here’s to 2008 being better than 2007!

Dreamhost Hosting

Published
by
andrewknight
on December 31, 2007
in Technology
. 0 Comments

With my move to working more with php and ruby on rails I decided to ditch my windows hosting and move over to Unix and Apache. Most of the active open source projects run better on Apache and the mod_rewrite module is essential for creating easy search engine friendly links. I took a look at a bunch of different providers but settled on Dreamhost. They offer a ton of features for $11 a month and lit looks like they have a pretty good reputation. So far the migration has gone smoothly and everything is up and running. You can get a $50 discount on new hosting contracts if you use promo code: MYDREAM50

Open Source Software

Published
by
andrewknight
on December 30, 2007
in Technology
. 1 Comment

Before I started working for Home Depot I was an ASP developer for Gardener’s Supply and Burton Snowboards. I drank a lot of Microsoft kool-aid in those days and was an early adopter of asp.net. Since I was using Microsoft tools at work I never paid attention to any of the open source projects going on in PHP and more recently Ruby on Rails. It was not until I installed Wordpress for this blog did I realize how far these applications had come! So I have ditched my Microsoft allegiance and have started working with some great open source projects like modX and Magento. I am exited to start learning some of these new tools and to start working with PHP and Ruby. My first project was to convert my basic consulting website template over to PHP :)

Blogging Goals for 2008

Published
by
andrewknight
on December 30, 2007
in Purely Personal
. 0 Comments

I like goals. Let’s see if I can hit them:

  • Avgerage 2 posts a week
  • 50,000 visits
  • 100 people to tell me they found this information useful

New Category: Web Applications

Published
by
andrewknight
on December 30, 2007
in Web Applications
. 0 Comments

The buzz in 2007 was all about web apps. Taking things that traditional desktop software handled and moving them online and enabling people to access them anywhere. I have created a new category called web applications and will be posting some reviews that highlight the very best. Here are some links to 2 past reviews I did:

Blogging: Wordpress is Awesome

Photo Sharing: Smugmug Photo Sharing

Wedding planning update

Published
by
andrewknight
on December 27, 2007
in Purely Personal
. 0 Comments

Things are in full swing and we have made some great progress on the wedding plans. April 13′th will be just around the corner!

Well those are the major items! Lot’s more little things to do. For more details on our wedding you can view our web site on the Knot.com

    House Cleaning on AndrewKnight.com

    Published
    by
    andrewknight
    on December 27, 2007
    in Purely Personal
    . 0 Comments

    I have done a little house cleaning on the website and implemented the new K2 theme for Wordpress. Here are a few of the changes:

    • It has some neat new Ajax functions that improve search and navigation.
    • 3 column layout to get more information on the page.
    • All the links are now search engine friendly and easy to read.
    • Fast loading XHTML/CSS design
    • Great widget interface for modifying things on the page

    Let me know what you think!

    Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPP)

    Published
    by
    andrewknight
    on September 10, 2007
    in Personal Finance
    . 0 Comments

    ESPP’s are often the source of a lot of confusion so i thought it would be a good topic to post on. Most people don’t realize they are giving up FREE money by not participating in these plans.

    What is an Employee Stock Purchase Plan or ESPP?
    It is a stock purchase program that allows employees to purchase stock at a discount, usually 10 or 15%

    Most large public companies offer these programs. Check with your HR department to see if yours does. If the program meets a few simple criteria they can be a great way to get FREE money. We all like FREE money :)

    So how does it work?
    Employees contribute after tax dollars, up to a pre-defined maximum, to an escrow account. At the end of the plan period, either quarterly or semi-annually, the company uses the escrow money to purchase the stock at the closing price minus the discount.

    What about the free money part?
    You need to read the fine print and see if there is any kind of holding period. If there is NO holding period you should contribute to the MAXIMUM the plan allows. As soon as you get the discounted shares, turn around and sell them the next day for an automatic 10 or 15% return on your investment!

    The Home Depot Example
    Here is how it works at Home Depot, we will use a sample salary of $50k for easy round numbers.

    • Semi-Annual Plan
    • You can contribute up to 20% of your pre-tax salary
      ($5k per plan period / $384 per pay check)
    • 15% discount on the closing price of the last day of the plan period
      ($750 discount)
    • No holding period

    This works out to a 3% bonus per year or $1,500. Not bad for doing nothing but a little planning. The tricky part with this is that the 20% will take about of a third of your paycheck when you take taxes into account.

    Bi-weekly Gross Pay $1,923.08
    Federal Withholding $289.50
    Social Security $119.23
    Medicare $27.88
    Georgia $102.77
    ESPP $384.62
    Net Pay $999.08

    On the plus side this is a GREAT way to save money for big purchases and to live on less than you make.

    What about the taxes? Shouldn’t you keep the stock for at least a year to pay less in taxes?
    Here is how the taxes work. If you sell the stock right away, the IRS considers it as ordinary income. If you hold the stock for at least a year you will pay capital gains which is 15%. So yes, you would pay taxes if you held the stock but you always have to evaluate risk. There is an added risk to doing that and for me I just don’t think that risk is worth it. For example, we received the most recent allocation of ESPP shares in July at $38. By the time the shares were in my account (~10 days) the stock was at $40 and I sold them immediately. The stock is at $34 today!

    I am an avid believer that you should not invest in the individual stock of the company you work for. You already have your income tied directly to the success of the company, you don’t want your investments to also be impacted if the company takes a turn for the worse.

    My use it or lose it vacation

    Published
    by
    andrewknight
    on September 10, 2007
    in Purely Personal
    . 0 Comments

    I am on my “use it or lose it” vacation this week! At Home Depot your vacation time does not carry over so I had to start taking some. Looking forward to catching up on some house projects, doing some photography, relaxing, and maybe even writing some more posts!