Happy New Year's Eve!

While I don't normally post on Saturdays, I noticed on my sidebar that I had published 99 posts during 2011, and, gosh darnit, how do you not go for 100 when you're in that position?

Too dark?

Anyways, I just wanted to take a moment to thank everybody who has stopped by over the last several months.  I am thankful for my growing readership, and I will continue to publish quality commentary on monetary issues (as well as things like 2 Broke Girls) into the new year.

I'm also excited to realize that I published 100 posts in 2011 because I've only published with any consistency since July (this consistency was, in part, spurred on by my participation in the Yakezie Challenge); I look forward to the fun and challenge that will come with keeping up the pace next year and getting to (at least!) 200 posts!

A final item that I'd like to bring up is that I will be starting a new website in the coming week.  As I've mentioned on here previously, one of my goals in life is to lose a fair (unfair?) amount of weight.  This being the time of year in which people resolve to do things like lose weight, I thought, cliched though it may be, that I'd resolve to lose that weight.  I may also mention weight-loss items here, but I thought that it would dilute the focus at Pinch that Penny! to dwell too much on losing weight here.

If you are interested, I'll definitely link to it when the site is live, and I'd certainly appreciate it if any of you would stop by from time to time to encourage me (the primary reason I'm creating the site is so that I will have a very public accountability system).  As far as how much weight I'm hoping to lose, let's just say that I'm hoping, at the end, I'll look a lot more like Laurel than Hardy, or a little bit more like Abbot than Costello. 

In any case, have a safe and fun time tonight, and I'll see you all in 2012!

Friday Links

Andrea at So Over Debt asked if we're defined by our mistakes, and she makes the case that those in poverty are not easily able to escape from poverty* and that assuming the poor should just choose to not be poor anymore is kind of asinine.

MSN Money listed four good and four bad money resolutions for the new year.  Interestingly, none of the good money resolutions was to pay off the Mayan gods who are planning planetary destruction as we speak.

Gizmodo had a terrific post about how the hashtag is ruining the English language. 

Moneycrashers posed ways in which you can create free exercise programs for yourself.  None of these involved having a Twinkie dangling from a string just out of your reach.

In a several-year-old piece, a writer for Slate described how running a coffee shop is a money pit.  It remains unfortunate that the things that we think we might most enjoy doing tend to be the worst financial decisions we could make.

Forbes magazine shared eleven life-changing tax decisions.  For me, at least, the money saved by moving from California (a state with state income tax) to Nevada (a state without state income tax) would almost certainly end up in the the coffers of the Bellagio, so it's kind of a wash.

In a guest post for Get Rich Slowly, the author describes how losing 25 pounds is a sound financial decision.  What he neglects to mention is that before his diet, the writer mostly ate gold coins.

*I would like to see the movie "Escape from Poverty" starring an eye-patch wearing Kurt Russell.  Or even Keri Russell.

Investing: P2P Lending vs. Bank CDs

I'm going to start this post by stating something that is stupidly obvious: there are a huge number of different ways to invest your money.  From stocks and bonds, to investing in new companies, to burying your cash in the backyard, if you can imagine it, you can probably invest in it (dream a little dream, you dreamers!).  For the purposes of this article though, I'm only going to focus on two that I think have a good deal in common: peer to peer (P2P) lending and certificates of deposit (CDs).

How P2P Lending and CDs Are Similar

The key similarity both investments share is that both require you to tie up your money for a certain, specified amount of time.  As such, both are essentially illiquid investments.*  However, this length of time is fairly short-term, particularly when compared to 30 year bonds, for instance. 

For CDs, your money can be tied up anywhere between three months and five years, depending on how long you choose to invest.  For P2P, (which I'm basing on my experience with Lending Club, as I am unfamiliar with Prosper and others), your money is invested for either three years or five years.**

With the above similarity stated, let's look at the pros and cons of each investment.

2012 Financial Goals

Just as Couple Money and others have done, I think it's an excellent idea to spend some time thinking about what our financial goals are and should be in the new year.  Below are some of my own.

1)  Max Out my 401(k) - As I've mentioned before, the company that I work for has a very generous 401(k) plan: they match every dollar up to the federal limit (in 2011 it was $16,500, and in 2012 it will be $17,000).  Unfortunately, I have been unable to contribute to the plan thus far as the company knows that the retirement plan is very generous, and so they only offer it to employees that have been with the company for at least six months.  Luckily for me, since my position started in July, I will be able to enroll in the 401(k) retirement plan in the middle of January. 

If and when I max out my contributions in 2012 (market forces notwithstanding), I will have a cool $34,000 to show for it.  If I stay for three years, I'll have $102,000, and, if I stay my entire career full-time at this company, by the end of 2041, I'll have $1,020,000.  That's not too shabby.  It's also worth noting that $34,000 is more than 50% of my personal gross income (not counting whatever bonus I receive).

2)  Pay Off my Student Loans - As I can't seem to shut up about, I graduated in May with an M.A. in Drama.  I was able to pay most of my tuition with money I had saved from working, but during my time at school, I took out some federal loans (approximately $3,700).  For what it's worth, it's kind of amazing that I ONLY took out that much as my grad school experience was characterized by me commuting back and forth from San Diego to San Francisco (to my readers not in California, these cities are not close). 

Anyways, if I were some sort of amazing personal finance blogger, I would have already paid off my loans during the grace period.  Nevertheless, I didn't, and the grace period for my student loans ended last month.  While I don't hate student loans as much as some in the personal finance community, I think the amount that I have due will be manageable to pay off in the upcoming year, and I will be glad to be rid of them.  Plus, if I really do get into a Ph.D. program in the fall, I'd like to have all the education that I've received up to that point already paid off.*

3)  Continue to Invest in Lending Club - I've basically only dipped my toes in the waters of Lending Club so far (that is, I've only put in a couple of hundred dollars), but the calm, pleasant currents of rates of return above 7% feel awfully nice between my tootsies.**  As I invest more, I will undoubtedly write a review of the site here to talk about what I've learned.

How about you?  What are your money plans in the new year?  Let me know in the comments.

*I realize that if I do go back to school, I could defer the loans, but that's not a route I want to take.

**7% is based on my choosing pretty conservative notes, but I wanted to choose people with the "safest" credit to start out with.

Photo by lululemon athletica.

Friday Links

Shopping Detox compared the cost of purchasing all the items in the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" with the cost of purchasing all the items in Destiny's Child's song "8 Days of Christmas."  As much as I loves me some lords a-leaping, I don't think I'll shell out $24 grand for the whole package.

The Digerati Life shared some links to free ebooks on financial topics. 

Bookshop Blog wrote about what books to buy and what books to avoid when you own your own bookstore.  Spoiler alert: it turns out only buying what you yourself enjoy reading is not a sound business practice.

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff gave some advice on what to look for when purchasing second-hand books.

Debt Black Hole asked how much do you spend on your geek collections?  I figure purchasing geeks is a pretty good investment (13th through 15th Amendments be darned!), so I actually spend quite a bit.  Oh the databases I can demand on demand!

Cash Money Life wrote about how small decisions add up, particularly in terms of purchases.

Finally, The Consumerist shared a Nielsen study that shows which television shows were most egregiously using product placement.  I mean, are they even really drinking Coke on Americas Idol?  Also, I was surprised Bones wasn't on the list as the last episode I watched seemed to basically be an advertisement for some car.

Restaurant.com Coupon Code

I've only seen Restaurant.com have certificates this cheap once or twice before.  Use the coupon code JOY to receive a 90% discount on gift certificates you purchase if you buy between now and December 24.

They have 80% off sales at least once a month, so if you miss out, you'll probably be able to get these for about as cheap some time in the future.

Full disclosure: I do receive a percentage of what you buy if you click on the above link, but as you will probably be spending only a few dollars, it's not a whole lot.  I just really like it when they're 90% off!

3 Lessons about Selling Sports Tickets on Craigslist, Or, Why I'm a Moron

As I mentioned last week, over the last few months, I have managed to lose a good-sized sum of money by selling my extra season tickets for the San Diego Chargers on Craigslist.  While I have more or less sworn off of making money in this way, I learned a few things that I think could be helpful to others who are trying to make money selling tickets on Craigslist.

But today, I'd rather talk to you about the draft...

Nah, just kidding.  Here are my thoughts about selling football tickets on Craigslist.

1)  Don't Assume Prices Will Go Up - I bought a partial season ticket package (I received tickets to four of the eight home games).  For arbitrage to be successful, one must sell items for more than he or she paid for them (this is key).  Of the four games that I purchased, the ticket prices for only one of those games in the secondary market went up significantly.  For each of the other games, the tickets lost value (including one game in which market forces compelled me to sell three tickets for $10 a piece -- a $60 per ticket loss).  For the other two games, I lost about $15 to $20 per ticket.

2)  Make Sure to Maximize Profits - I purchased season tickets because the secondary market for one of the games (Green Bay at San Diego) was ridiculously expensive, and the Chargers organization, knowing that that was the marquis game of the season, did not allow fans to purchase tickets for that game alone.  Instead, fans had to buy at least a two game package.  Nevertheless, it has been a tradition for me and my family to go to a Chargers game at least once a season, so I thought I'd save us all (read: my family) money by buying the tickets as part of this package.

Then, on the morning of the game, which took place in beautiful, sunny San Diego, the unthinkable happened: it rained.  One of the people who was going to come to the game was my grandfather who, though spry for an 88 year old, is not really the sort of person who should be sitting in the rain for an extended period of time.  My uncle (understandably) decided to keep grandpa company, which left me stuck with two tickets.  Worried about the last minute nature of my plight, I hurriedly put the two tickets up on Craigslist.   While I did make a small profit, the sheer number of rapid responses to my posting led me to believe that I could have sold the tickets for quite a bit more.  When you consider that I felt compelled to pay my grandpa and uncle back for what they had paid me for the tickets, I didn't come out very far ahead at all.

Particularly when I lost money on the other games, I should have tried to sell the tickets for a lot more.

3)  Make Sure to Have Change - For one pair of tickets that I sold, the buyer and I had agreed to $110.  Absent-mindedly, I did not bring change with me.  The buyer only had twenty dollar bills (as he had just hit up an ATM on his way to meet me), so we were left with with three options: not selling the tickets, selling the tickets for $120, or selling the tickets for $100.  As I was leaving early the next morning to fly to a different state for a work conference, I wanted to get rid of the tickets (as dealing with buyers on Craigslist is a fickle, time-consuming enterprise), so not selling them wasn't really a great option for me.  He, of course, didn't want to pay more than we had agreed on, and so I was left taking less money than I had expected. 

I realize that $10 isn't a lot of money, but, as I had already lost so much money, any amount extra that I could get back would have helped.

In short, I think trying to re-sell tickets is a fool's errand, unless you can purchase the tickets for a significantly reduced rate.  If you're paying face value with the intention to re-sell, you are almost certainly paying too much.  Nevertheless, people can and do make money in this way, and I hope the above will provide a helpful, if cautionary, example.

Photo by me!