Bogleheads.org

Strong passwords are not hard to remember if you use acronym for a favorite phrase and combine with numbers that are memorable. You can even include capital letters and a special character to remember. I have one weak password that I use for non sensitive websites but use different strong passwords...

IT people are good people in general. For some reason, once a company has an IT group, there appears to be a necessity to "do things". Frequent emails apologizing for service that will be down for maintenance at 3 AM of a 3 day weekend and offering to make special arrangements as needed. ...

I managed a large IT organization for many years. My security staff insisted that all employees change their passwords every 60 days. I asked the security manager why should we require that when none of my financial accounts require a change in passwords ever. These financial companies would be on ...

Didn't read the replies on this, but the first thing that came to mind is that you have free will and can change banks. The second thing that came to mind is that an average monthly balance of 300 smackers is not asking too much. The financial incentive for banks to hold very small accounts for fre...

Even safer and better than the recommendation from the comic strip above is to just use Keepass for all things financial or requiring security, and max out all the password generation complexity for the given website. Yes, you're then tied to Keepass to logon to the website, but that's likely good ...

"high school student wants to be rich some day" Study, work hard and leave the results to God. No secret to success you will reading posts on a board lol. Exactly. And - as a young person myself - I would refrain from answering the kid's questions with straightforward answers. I understan...

Reward credit cards with SB work pretty much like index funds vs high fee mutual funds: - people who can restrain themselves will get the benefits - people who can't restrain themselves will pay the bills for the rest of us The world is just a giant game of [Starcraft, Settlers of Catan, et cetera]...

My computer with XP crashed earlier this week. I just got it back from my computer guy (the guy who made it for me), and he said that there was a problem with the motherboad, which would almost certainly go out for good within a few months. He fixed things, but he said the motherboard was just fail...

Without knowing your line of work, hard to say. Password change policies are a double-edged sword. They solve one type of problem and replace it with another: people tend to need to write the passwords down if they change too often . :thumbsup my bolded in your comment Exactly! I tried to explain t...

First and foremost, it is of the highest importance that you use different passwords. I am myself at fault; for unimportant sites, I have a few go-to throwaway passwords. But for important sites like bank accounts and so on, different passwords will protect you way, way more than changing passwords ...

I literally could not figure out how to get anything to work. I had a blank screen and no start button. I moved the mouse around and found nothing. I am pretty computer savvy, and I had a hard time, I can only imagine a very basic user having nightmarish stories. I really think/hope this is a short...

I literally could not figure out how to get anything to work. I had a blank screen and no start button. I moved the mouse around and found nothing. I am pretty computer savvy, and I had a hard time, I can only imagine a very basic user having nightmarish stories. I really think/hope this is a short...

My wife recently bought a new computer and opted to get one with Windows 8. She felt that it was likely to lead to a longer period of time before she would have to replace the computer due to what I call "terminal version skew." She did it in close consultation with me and I think it was ...

BUT , the wife received a mini iPad as a gift and she carries it everywhere. Plays games, checks and sends email, surfs the web, down loads eBooks from our library - all at no cost. Please tell me more about the "all at no cost" aspect. 1210 P.S. Anyone....what's a "hotspot"? A ...

If you're not tech savvy and want a smart phone that is easy to use and reliable, you owe it to yourself to give the iPhone a very hard look. Please note that sales reps at carrier run stores will almost certainly discourage you from going this route. They have ulterior motives for steering you tow...

One of our sons is on a T-mobile plan (I beleive it is the one with: 100 minutes talk, Unlimited text, First 5GB at up to 4G speeds) for $30 per month with a smart phone, he did have to spend many dollars to buy the phone though. http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans Yeah, but the consum...

0) Having a smartphone doesn't make you any less of a Boglehead. :) Also, I understand the hesitation of signing a 2-year contract, but if it makes financial sense for your usage, go ahead. :) You are so right on this one. It is more the 2 year contract then owning a smart phone that gets the he is...

hq38sq43 wrote:A 16-year-old Singaporean? Anyone else suspect some one is putting us on?

Nah. The kid types like one.

We are going to be in the UK in May and would like to get a cheap phone for UK (England & Scotland) only calling. One cheap phone is shown here at Carphone Warehouse under Pay as You Go plans: http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/categories/price-plans/pay-as-you-go Anybody used this or ano...

My husband and I just came off of a 2 year contract with Verizon and are now month to month. We have 2 basic phones and unlimitted talk and text for $100+tax. Unlimited is important to us since we have no land line or work provided cell phones. I have decided to get a smart phone while he is a true...

Banks profit on the difference of the interest they pay me and turning around and lending that money to someone else. I don't care if it's $1 million or $50. To say that the bank makes nothing off of consumers with small balances is wrong. Are you just pulling all of our legs, or do you really beli...

I do think a lot of American consumers grossly over-value their own patronage, and not just as bank depositors. Bingo. All that "the customer is always right" attitude. :sharebeer $300 is a very low bar; if the OP really wants the keep the account and its perks, the OP should just stick $...

durrrr wrote:Bump.

Not to be rude, but this is a little obnoxious (you've bumped it once before, so you could probably take the hint that either people don't have the answers you want or are not interested in this thread?).

Thanks, all these options are likely better than what i have at usbank. I do travel overseas and i need free intrrnational transactions, no annual fees and low APR :happy The PenFed (Pentagon Federal Credit Union) card mentioned has no annual fees and no intl currency fees. They have several differ...

Registering a domain & getting emails through that has another advantage. [...] My one hesitation is that if I do that, then the security of my email account is entirely on me [...] Only if you operate your own email server, which you probably wouldn't. Instead, you'd probably want to register ...

If I have an unlocked Iphone 5, can I buy a plan where I'll only use voice and no data? I tried doing this with AT&T prepaid and they said data will be charged automatically (even if I don't buy that plan) because I am using a smartphone. You can buy such a plan, you have to be careful not to t...

Thought I'd report my experience with AirVoice. I ordered a couple of SIM cards from them to try out. Unfortunately, they are mini-Sims that had to be cut down to fit a micro-Sim slot on my phone, same as for an iPhone. This seems rather archaic since most phones these days are using micro-SIMS and...

Registering a domain & getting emails through that has another advantage. You can typically setup email aliases to use for different purposes. So rjsob at xyx.com can also be rjsnospam at xyz.com. I set up aliases for each purpose (financial, subscriptions, forums, amazon purchases, etc). That ...

Far as I can tell, GoPhone is not a bring your own phone plan where you can buy a SIM card. The others you mentioned are. Is that right? I'm mostly interested in using my own device with a SIM. Any AT&T plan is also a you-can-BYOP plan where you can just insert the SIM Card. In fact, any CDMA p...

Absolutely technically not true. "When using WiFi", your phone "decides" which connection to use. If cellular data is turned on, your phone might decide to use that instead (read my entire post about accidental connections). You cannot be billed for WiFi through your service pro...

I have 7+ personal email addresses and can safely say that Gmail and Outlook.com are way up there in my good books, and Yahoo! Mail comes in third. Gmail used to be the clear winner, but Outlook.com refreshed Hotmail a big deal and it looks fantastic now. Way cleaner than Gmail, very good mobile syn...

I'm sorry, but your response makes little technical sense. WiFi is not billable at all by your service provider. Worrying about paying for WiFi through a service provider is not justified at all. This needs to be clarified. You CAN get billed for cellular data usage even though you are on WiFi. It ...

Just watch out in the fine print - a lot of places will still charge you for web time unless you cellphone is expressly set to Cellular data OFF - even if it's wifi accessing, some places say they will still charge for web time if your cellular data isn't set to OFF. Honestly, I don't think it's a ...

What I would love to ask everyone, is that I do honestly want to help my parents somehow. I could give them a loan to help pay for their down payment, but is there anything else? Or really do I just need to say, I love you guys, but this isn't going to work. The best way you could help your parents...

My wife and I want to get one or two more credit cards and a car loan when possible, but I don't know the right way to do it. I have excellent credit but no job. I'm a student under the Post 9/11 GI Bill, and I receive a housing allowance each month. Will creditors accept this income, or is it a wa...

I am really liking the idea of going with a prepaid service to try out having a Smartphone. I'm investigating StraightTalk and Simple Mobile and a couple of others which let you use an unlocked phone with a SIM card. You can get plans as low as $30/mo. with 30MB of data up to $45 for unlimited. You...

leonard wrote:Credit cards are a tool. Use the tool the amount you need to - keep the rest of your financial life in order - and let your credit rating fall where it may.

Some of us would like to learn to master said tool, but thanks for your support.

Who the heck wants to be using the last gen Smartphone? It's a triumph of marketing over necessity isn't it? There are no upgrades of basic cellphones anymore and the ones that are available are crummier than the one I've had for five years. If you're the kind of person who likes to pay cash for a ...

Previous poster mentioned that you can barely find an old-school talk cellphone on T-Mobile. Same goes for Verizon, ATT, and Sprint too. I remember when I'd get an upgrade offer after my 2-year subscription was up to swap to a newer phone and get a $50 bonus to renew my 2-year contract. My 2-year c...

I do not have a smartphone. Never did. This whole comical debate comes down to this: On the 1st of each month that you pay for having a smartphone (including the amount of purchase for the phone itself), lay down the amount you will pay for the smartphone on the table. Could be 30, 40, 50 bucks. If...

I use Credit Karma to get a general estimate of what my credit score is. I noticed that for credit card utilization, i received a C grade because I have less than 1% utilized. I have about $100,000 in limit between 5 cards and usually always have less than $1,000 charged at all times. Does it make ...

$50 a month for a regular plan there and about $30 for month-to-month. Perhaps there is something cheaper on T-Mobile but it certainly isn't easily found. 90% of their site is about smartphones and smartphone plans because that is the market and will be moving forward. See any regular cell phones t...

A very important question that isn't really discussed is what will others expect of you? Things like what industry are you in and how old are you are important. If your industry requires very little technology and is relatively no-stress and low-pressure, then of course nobody will really expect you...

I don't sign up for, use, accept or have anything to do with store credit cards. Just another avenue for ID theft, plus it adds bulk to my wallet. Whatever the special offer, I turn it down. I'm curious how that helps with reducing the risk of ID theft. It at most reduces the visibility of ID theft...

Again, thanks for all the wonderful advice. Can someone tell me if this idea is practical. I love the idea of flying 'open-jaw,' but I've found that actually searching for flights like this is cumbersome, to say the least. And, as previously noted, I'm having a hard time matching the price of round...

Suggestion : Get rid of your watches. A few years ago, I had read that the younger generation no longer wears watches, since everyone already has cellphones, which have the date & time automatically updated. Cellphone date & time automatically updates for daylight savings time, and it autom...

Again, thanks for all the wonderful advice. Can someone tell me if this idea is practical. I love the idea of flying 'open-jaw,' but I've found that actually searching for flights like this is cumbersome, to say the least. And, as previously noted, I'm having a hard time matching the price of round...

I don't sign up for, use, accept or have anything to do with store credit cards. Just another avenue for ID theft, plus it adds bulk to my wallet. Whatever the special offer, I turn it down. I'm curious how that helps with reducing the risk of ID theft. It at most reduces the visibility of ID theft...

A department store card is similar to any other credit card in its effect on your credit, so it makes sense to get one only if that card is the best use of your credit. The card can only be used at one store, but discounts at that store may make it worthwhile. And there are the usual cautions about...

On an entirely different note, for those who want to tip for a job well done, would you ever consider - I have considered - dangling a carrot for your hairdresser (or whoever provides you your service) before the service is provided? E.g., "Hey, here's a $20 (or whatever), I'd really appreciate...