A device with “apps” for viewing TV/Entertainment. Currently, XBOX, Wii, PS3, iPads, iPods, iPhones and almost any computer will allow you to watch TV through apps like Netflix and Hulu Plus. For my large TV screens at home, I have specifically purchased AppleTV device and Roku boxes for my TVs. Both run HDMI and provide HD quality although the AppleTV is only 720p while the Roku is 1080p.

The Roku box will run you about $50 or so depending on the model you get while Apple TV will cost you $99.

Netflix will cost $9 per month.

HuluPlus will cost $8 per month.

Amazon Prime Streaming is FREE if you have Amazon prime $39/year (students) or $79/year for everyone else ($3.25/month for students or $6.58/month for everyone else).

So assuming you have two TV’s at home and you want this setup, your total cost for the first year will be $100 (Roku) + $108 [$9 x 12 (Netflix)] + $96 [$8 x 12 (HuluPlus)] + $77 [$6.58/month (Amazon Prime)] = $381 for the first year.

After the first year, the annual recurring costs (assuming no increase) will be $281 since the Roku boxes are a one time charge. This is effectively $23/month for basically unlimited movies and TV shows from around the world. Contrast the $23/month for this build your own package versus the current $168 AT&T Uverse bill I get and it’s a no brainer! Keep in mind that if you already own a Wii or XBox you can use those devices and not need the Roku at all! I’m currently watching Breaking Bad (on Apple TV), Grimm (on HuluPlus) and other shows on Amazon Prime that I’ve never had time to see and the best part of all is that I can take my subscriptions with me on my iPad when I travel!

Goodbye AT&T uverse, I wish you the best of luck but if you want me back, offer me a-la-cart programming because I don’t want 500 ESPN channels. I’ll make it easy for you here are the only channels I watch: Smithsonian, History, Discovery, broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS). The kids watch a couple of the Disney channels but they watch too much TV now anyway but if you throw them in with the others for $25/month or less then I might come back. Of course if you want to really save money, just buy an over-the-air antenna and drop the subscription altogether….

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I typed this in the Bing search engine, “shared secured loan 1.75% credit union” and I got a ton of responses.

Here are just some of the credit unions that offer this low secure loan rate.

Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union (New Jersey) – Rate between 1.75% to 2.50%

AOD Credit Union (Alabama) – Rate of 1.75% above CD rate.  Note: CD rate is low.

Vantage Credit Union (Illinois) – Rate of 1.75% (variable).

I am not endorsing any of these institutions nor am I validating the rates but simply reporting on what I saw on the web for each credit union.  To be fair though, the rates do vary greatly from credit union to credit union and some of the terms are fixed for a period of time anywhere from 24 months to 60 months while others vary month to month.  It would be great to have a consolidated website that reported the current rates for each credit union similar to what BankRate.com does for banks but I couldn’t find any website that maintains that list, perhaps a niche market for a savvy web-entrepreneur?  I am beginning to think this is one of the best kept secrets out there!   I must have been lucky to have a credit union with such a low rate right off the top!

So what I did was get a fixed rate of 1.75% for a period 36 months which would reduce my student loan from the 6.8% rate it’s at now.    Finally, people are asking me what happens when you take the money out and the answer is you can’t.   At least not take any out if there is a remaining balance or perhaps a portion thereof and I haven’t even considered it because in a pinch you can simply direct the payoff from the secured deposit over to the loan.    Again, this financing framework isn’t probably for everyone especially if you’re living paycheck to paycheck but then again, I’m not writing for that demographic anyway so this shouldn’t be the solution to debt problems for the weary.

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But now I’m thinking I might be able to move some IRA money into an IRA savings account at the credit union and borrow at 1.75% and pay the remaining balance of my mortgage off which is currently at a low 3.25% interest rate.   Alternatively if I am ever in the market for any kind of loan, why not borrow from myself at 1.75 percent?   I haven’t officially asked if I can do this and that’s my next step on it but it makes perfect sense.

You may be asking why I don’t simply take the money and pay off the loan and avoid all interest altogether and the answer is simple:  reserves.   The money I’m using is essentially emergency cash reserves that I use for emergencies but since I also have secondary reserves at my brokerage account and I still have most of that student loan money in another credit union sitting in cash it makes sense to borrow at nearly negative rates (if inflation is running 3% then borrowing at 1.75% means I’m deflating the debt nicely).

If you’re interested in looking into this strategy I suggest you google “credit union share secured loan” or visit your local credit unions.  Shop around as rates vary and each major city has at least dozens of credit unions.

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Much to my surprise, the kids agreed to give up TV for the iPhones so this weekend we went over to the Sprint store and ordered 4 new 32gb iPhones at a cost of $1200 + tax and a service plan around $230 per month!    Since this is a two year deal we’re looking at a total cost of $6,720 and I opted for Sprint because I did not want to get tagged with excessive data, texts or other shenanigans AT&T and Verizon have on their plans.

I know that this appears to be a great deal of money to many and it is but I have full rationalization for it.   Here are m top reasons and justifications:

1. Everyone knows the world and commerce is globalized but few see the mobility aspect.   The world economy is increasingly demanding workers be mobile.  I’ve logged 60,000 miles this year alone and many of my peers are going overseas for work these days.   Having an iPhone and its wondrous capabilities is a must and I want my kids to get a head start in that world.

2. “Find My iPhone” is a neat little feature that allows you to track your iPhone, it so happens that it will allow my wife and I to track our kids.  The safety and security this feature brings is worth cost alone but it is an added plus.

3. The iPhone isn’t just a phone, it’s a fully functional computer with thousands of apps that are beneficial to have to help educate, entertain and enhance human existence.

4. The iPhone will actually save me money in avoiding the purchase of alternative devices.  I’ve written about how the iPad has replaced dozens of physical devices in my home and the iPhone will do the same and by consolidating everything into one device, I will avoid having to buy things like Nintendo DS consoles, iPods, and even a cash register!

5.  By having a standard device between all family members, we should be able to stay in sync and communicate more efficiently and support will be the same.  Right now, we have blackberry, motorola, android/samsung chargers and cables (all incompatible) lying around the house.   We’ll leverage the single iPhone interface when we travel to charge phones and sync with computers!

So the only thing left to do now is turn off AT&T uverse which I will do after the Christmas holiday and keep it off for two years.   I guess for Christmas I’ll be asking for off-air antennae to plug into my $3000 LED TVs in the house!

I must admit, I rarely watch TV anymore and when I do it’s usually something on Netflix or Amazon Streaming and my iPad has apps for both of those things.TV manufacturers are missing the boat, instead of building in a bunch of features like NetFlix into the TV, they should build wireless streaming interfaces from mobile devices like iPhones so I can stream whatever is pulling down my phone onto the TV.

Finally, I’ll say that the Sprint store I visited was pretty full and they were sold out of almost all iPhones.   They had one 32gb iPhone left but it was black and we all wanted white ones.  I think this may bode well for Sprint and since their stock is in the gutter it may be a worthwhile investment.

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I actually currently have FOUR different credit union accounts and plan to stay there forever.   The credit unions are typically non-profit and serve their members with rates highly competitive and often lower than most banks.    To find a credit union near you, click here.

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It has never bothered me before because I pay off my credit cards in full each month but on the rare occasion where there is a 30 day period of overlap I’ve been  hit with finance fees of up to $70.    How does that happen?  Well just charge $10,000 and pay a day or two too late and you’ll know what I mean.    As such I am contemplating the unthinkable…..closing all my remaining big bank account credit cards.

I really see no need for them anymore as the cash back programs have been decimated and the lone hold out has been my Amex Costco card.    My credit union is also now sending me 0% APR checks with even lower fees than the big banks so why do I need any big bank accounts anymore?

The truth of the matter is that I’m still pissed off at big bank bailouts and I’ll never go back to doing business with the big bank cartel as long as I live.   I know have four credit union accounts to spread the risk and I’ll continue to open more and move my money there.

Interestingly enough, another reason why I am moving to credit unions is that they are adapting mobile banking and have iPad apps for my ipad than most of the big banks!

To summarize:  Credit unions offer lower interest credit cards, better local service, lower fees, more advanced technology features, and better loan terms.  Why do big banks exist again?  Oh yeah, so they can be too big to fail……

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While I get a lot of flak for talking about the iPad and the awesomeness of its capabilities on this financial blog, allow me to relay a recent story that has a direct financial impact on any college students finances.     I’m currently taking a marketing and finance class and as the new fall semester has started I had to purchase a couple of books for my classes.    A few years ago I would have balked at the idea of buying e-books because I love having something physical I can see, sell or share with others but the ugly reality is that I have a whole library of college books from my undergraduate studies sitting in bookshelves unopened for years.    I have now embraced the digital world because at least now my entire library goes with me where ever I go!

So I downloaded an app called “Kno” which offers 100,000+ college textbooks at reduced rates.   I figured I’d check to see what my books would cost via electronic format.    I compared the prices against Amazon.com where I get most of my college textbooks and sell them back at the end of the semester.

First up was my finance class.  On Amazon.com, the textbook has the following prices $151 (new), $80 (used), and $64 (trade in value).  On Kno, the same book in electronic version costs $95 to “own” and $75 to “rent” for six months.

My second class marketing has Amazon.com book values of $99 (new) and $33 (used) and buy back value ($29).  On Kno, the same book in electronic version cost $65 to buy only, there is no rent option on this text on Kno and no apparent way to sell back the book.

So which is best?   Curiously, Amazon did not offer electronic versions of these books even though they exist as evidenced by Kno so that does play a part in my decision making scenario.   If the electronic versions of these books had been offered on Amazon, I would have purchased the electronic versions for the sole reason that Amazon allows use on multiple devices such as my iMac, MacBook Pro, iPad and iPod.   It appears Kno would only run on my ipad and that is too limiting for me.    Because I travel frequently for business, I prefer electronic books that I can have with me on a plane, hotel, or other venue where I have time to kill.

Ultimately, I ended up ordering the physical books from Amazon because I had no other real options for ebooks (at least none that worked for me).   I can see the world is changing and in the near future I’ll be able to buy ebooks at greatly reduced prices and carry them with me where I go.  In the meantime I can only hope some savvy entrepreneur in China or Russia is getting a scanner ready with all these books so I can get them dirt cheap off the net.

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Let’s do the math!

Borrowing $25,000 for 36 months at 7.9% will yield monthly payments of $782.26.   So if we take $782.26 and multiply that by 36 = $28,161.23.    So if we subtract the total payments of $28,161 from the original loan amount ($25k) we get = $3,161.23.    So that “free” hotel costs $1,053.74 per night!

Borrowing $25,000 for 24 months at 6.9% will yield monthly payments of $1,118.18.   So if we take the $1,118.18 and multiply that by 24 = $26,836.36.  So if we find the delta we get $1,836.36.   If we divide that by three then we get $612.12 per night!

Certainly a 24 month loan is better than a 36 month loan for the “free” vacation but still, $612 per night is pretty expensive.   Am I going to sign up for the loan?   Actually, I may do it but with a few caveats; first I need to find out if there is an early pre-payment penalty.  The smart thing to do is get the loan, use the free vacation and pay it back immediately or within a month.   A month of interest is only $76.50 so even going out a full three months will likely result in a break even point.

Also, I intend on doing a magic trick in turning a non-dischargable debt (student loans) into dischargable debt bank signature loan.   In the event I have to file bankruptcy (for any reason), I won’t need to worry about student loan debt piling on….and that’s how you get rich slick kids.

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Perhaps I’m being a bit too pessimistic but aside from the dramatic increases in freeway traffic in my city, I still see anemic spending in certain areas.   I recently went to a wedding hundreds of miles away and when visiting a mall, we noticed how many of the shops had closed and the crowds were fairly weak.  I did manage to buy 4 shirts marked down from $60 to $15 while visiting one of the big department stores.

So what to do?   Pay off the mortgage or save more cash?   The debate will continue until something pushes me into one decision or another.

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If anyone is desperate for a job, I would suggest you head north for some potential opportunities assuming you have a skill that is in demand such as anything in the oil & gas industry.

In other news, the past three weeks I’ve received unsolicited e-mails out of the blue asking if I would be interested in a couple of different executive positions.  Additionally, I’m getting quite a few hits on my LinkedIn profile from mostly recruiters.   I take this as a really good sign that perhaps the U.S. job market is finally starting to recover and we’re taking our first baby steps in that direction.   Of course, I turned them down because despite working like a dog, I’m currently enjoying my new job and want to ride it out for at least a couple of more years if not longer.   I could probably take one of those new jobs and get a 100k boost in salary but being in a position I don’t want to be in isn’t worth the extra money.

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