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Find the Best Rewards Credit Cards with Reward Boost Thumbnail

Find the Best Rewards Credit Cards with Reward Boost

Posted by Kevin McKee on June 04, 2013

Have you ever wondered if you were missing out on credit card rewards by not having the right cards in your wallet? Maybe you have a few cards in your wallet and you don't know which one gives you the most rewards at each different store. You don't have to wonder anymore because I've built Reward Boost which will answer all those questions for you! I am what you would call obsessive over my rewards points. I have four different rewards credit cards that I carry with me at all times: one for gas, one for groceries, one for restaurants, and one for everything else. This helps me to averag

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What’s Better: Going to College or Making Pizzas? Thumbnail

What’s Better: Going to College or Making Pizzas?

Posted by Kevin McKee on May 30, 2013

It just hit me the other day: my 10 year high school reunion is this year. Woah! So I'm officially not a kid anymore. I have some gray hairs, I can't workout for more than 30 minutes without feeling like I'm gonna die, and it's been a decade since I was in high school. When I think back to 10 years ago I was a starry eyed kid. I knew I was going to go to school, get a great job and be a millionaire. And I was going to do it all before my 30th birthday. I wanted to succeed. I needed to succeed. Heck I was offended my class didn't vote me most likely to succeed. Now the reunion is he

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I Saved $3,000 Installing My Bamboo Floors Thumbnail

I Saved $3,000 Installing My Bamboo Floors

Posted by Kevin McKee on May 22, 2013

Tag and I moved into our new house last December. Six months later we are about 100 square feet away from finishing the installation of about 1,400 square feet of bamboo floors. That's right; it has taken us over six months to install the floors in our house (and it's still not done). It also saved us about $3,000. According to a calculator I found at Home Wyse it would have cost me about $3,000 to have someone install 1,400 square feet of bamboo flooring. I never got a quote from an installer so I don't know if that's correct, but I assume it's about right. Now that I'm basically

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Logical Fallacies of Many Stock Market Investors Thumbnail

Logical Fallacies of Many Stock Market Investors

Posted by Kevin McKee on May 09, 2013

Last week I wrote about how amateur stock picks and even random stock picks have outperformed expert stock picks since January 2012. It is one of the reasons I don't trust the stock market. I realize this is not a popular opinion. Talk to any financial advisor or even your parents or grand parents, and they will tell you that I'm an idiot and the stock market is not only perfectly safe, but it's the key to being wealthy. Of if you don't want to talk to them, you can talk to Robert. Robert is a reader of my blog and he laid out his argument for investing in the stock market in the comm

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One Good Reason I’m Not Investing in the Stock Market Thumbnail

One Good Reason I’m Not Investing in the Stock Market

Posted by Kevin McKee on May 02, 2013

I used to love the stock market. I loved to research companies and pick new stocks to invest in. I created an entire ETF portfolio for my fiancee's Roth IRA. I even did some very risky options trading. I don't do any of that now. My fiancee and I both cashed out our Roth IRAs for the purchase of our first house. I sold every single stock I owned outside of my 401k for the down payment. Now when you exclude my 401k, I have exactly $0 invested in the stock market. Your typical financial planner would probably say I'm crazy to have so much of my wealth tied up in my home, Lending Club, prec

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Prepare for the Worst

Posted by Kevin McKee on April 19, 2013

My father won't survive the weekend. My dad has been sick for over a year, but in the last few months he has gotten really bad. He has a tumor in his throat that is so big he can't even swallow a sip of water. I flew to see him on Tuesday and my sister is coming in town in just a few hours. After he sees my sister, we are taking him off everything but the pain medication. He's in so much pain it's just better for him to go. I'm almost 28 years old and this is the first time someone close to me has died. I don't really know how to handle it (I don't think anyone does), but I'm doing

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The Government Doesn’t Want You to Retire Rich Thumbnail

The Government Doesn’t Want You to Retire Rich

Posted by Kevin McKee on April 09, 2013

President Barack Obama is about to unveil his budget proposal, and parts of his proposal have already made their way into the news. One of the aspects of his new budget is that he wants to prohibit anyone from saving more than $3,000,000 in an IRA. The White House issued a statement regarding this new proposal: Under current rules, some wealthy individuals are able to accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving. How dare anyone try to save more than a "reasonable" amount of money for retirement!? T

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A High Paying Career is Waiting for You Thumbnail

A High Paying Career is Waiting for You

Posted by Kevin McKee on April 04, 2013

If you are sitting there right now thinking, "I wish I had a job" or even "I wish I had a job that pays $75,000+ a year" then listen up. What if I told you that a corporate recruiter from a $10 billion dollar publicly traded company contacted me about a job simply because I had expressed interest in learning a particular skill? Check out this email: Last year I was looking for a promotion at work and I wanted to get into the mobile development space because I knew it was booming. Unfortunately I didn't have any experience there. I joined Meetup groups in my area to try to learn more abou

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How to Turn in a Leased Car Thumbnail

How to Turn in a Leased Car

Posted by Kevin McKee on April 02, 2013

A few weeks ago I wrote about how terrible it was preparing my car to be turned in at the end of a lease, and how I hated having to wait and find out if they are going to charge me for damages that were above and beyond "normal wear and tear". I was told that I would hear from them in 7-10 days if they were going to charge me for any damage. It has now been over three weeks since I handed over the keys and I haven't heard a word from Toyota. I logged onto my Toyota Financial Services account and it says, "This account has been closed..." Looks like the end of the lease wasn't so bad a

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401k Match Day is like a Holiday Thumbnail

401k Match Day is like a Holiday

Posted by Kevin McKee on March 28, 2013

If I could pick one day a year to repeat over and over again it wouldn't be Christmas. It wouldn't be my birthday either. Nope, the best (or at least most profitable) day of the year for me is 401k match day. My company gives a 100% 401k match for up to 6% of your contributions, and then gives an extra 2%. The only thing is I don't get the match every paycheck. The company contribution builds up over an entire year and is deposited in my account in one lump sum at the end of March. That day was yesterday for me, which means my net worth got a huge boost! 401k Employer Contributions are

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