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Two big gift-card giveaways.

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Savings.com (the parent company of Sivan Social) has two big gift-card giveaways running at the same time. Starting today, you can sign up to win one of five $100 e-gift cards to J. Crew Factory and/or one of five $100 e-gift cards to HSN.

Both would be great for summer fun: bathing suits, barbecue grills, shorts and rompers, garden supplies, pool toys, fire pits and lots more.

But they could also come in handy later on. I’m thinking birthday presents, holiday giving, charitable donations or maybe even filling blank spots in your own wardrobe/kitchen/garden/rec room/whatever. 

You get to decide. If you win, that is. And you can’t win if you don’t enter.

 

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5 money lessons from “Wrath of Man.”

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Sometimes I want to watch art films, international cinema or documentaries. And sometimes I just want to see a whole lotta stuff get blowed up real good. “Wrath of Man,” a heist film starring Jason Statham, did not disappoint even though at times it was hard to follow.

Mostly that was due to the flashbacks. Lots of flashbacks. A couple of other scenes were absolutely mystifying until later, when they finally begin to make sense. Patience is needed, along with a tolerance for gunfire and roaring engines.

Now and then the story is a bit mystifying, as when H (Statham) gives a sub-par performance at a shooting range and isn’t the best at parking a truck. Another character basically confesses to being a bad guy, at which point I whispered to my great-nephew, “Why in the world would he tell him that?”

“Because he doesn’t want him to die,” great-nephew whispered back.

Again, it all made sense eventually. And the whispering was okay: We were two of only five people in the theater, and the only ones in our section. Besides, there was all that gunfire and roaring engines to provide cover.

How did I find personal finance lessons in all this? The way I always do: by looking for them. Here’s what I found. 

 

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Why you need an “abundance tracker.”

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Recent talk of inflation (and the possibility of hyperinflation) has left me very jumpy. That’s why a squib in Melanie Lockert’s newsletter really resonated with me. 

“Do you ever feel like you’ll never have enough? This is a common issue when it comes to money mindset, and can impact our financial and mental health,” Lockert wrote.

“So one thing I’ve been doing lately is something I call ‘abundance tracker.’ I track all moments of abundance.”

A few recent examples:

Lockert’s health insurance premium decreased.

She received a gift card for food from someone who couldn’t use it.

She cashed in Starbucks rewards points for a free coffee.

According to Lockert, tracking “moments of abundance” can help reset your mindset: “From the discounts you get, to the gifts, time and support. It all counts.”

Turns out I’ve been doing that for the past week or so. I just didn’t know what to call it.

 

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Giveaway: Alaska-made chocolates.

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The other day I learned about a most, um, interesting confection: a dark chocolate bar (70 percent cacao) with Alaska sourdough and Alaska bee pollen.

I am not making that up.

Haven’t sampled it yet, but I will soon: DF and I plan to take it over to our beekeeping neighbor, thinking it will intrigue him as much as it did us.

What I did try was a unique specialty at Chugach Chocolates: “bean to bar” chocolates, made with single-source cacao beans from Vietnam, Fiji and Madagascar. The tasting took place after a tour to see how this small-batch chocolate company cracks, roasts, grinds and tempers its beans before flavoring and molding them into smooth, rich, delightful sweets.

This was dark chocolate unlike any I’ve previously tasted. I’m not sure I have the vocabulary to explain the different flavors, but I’ll give it a try: earthy, fruity, ever-so-slightly spicy and, mostly, dark. It made me think of the Mayans and how they drank their chocolate without sweeteners.

Not that this chocolate is bitter! It’s just that the reigning flavor was intensely chocolatey, rather than sugar-with-chocolate-added.

I’ve featured Chugach Chocolates before in my “support the local economy” giveaways. Now I’m ready to do it again, because I learned that they use ice packs and insulated covers to keep their delightful products safe for summertime shipping.

Wanna win? Keep reading.

 

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Monday miscellany: Car insurance costs edition.

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Bankrate.com recently took a deep dive into car insurance costs, and found that the average annual U.S. premium is $1,674.

Put another way: That represents 2.44 percent of the average driver’s income.

Bankrate also reinforced that how much you pay depends on where you live. For example, folks in Tampa pay about $450 more each year than drivers in Orlando. Yikes.

“The true cost of auto insurance in 2021” includes an interactive map that shows you average rates in your state and also its major metropolitan areas. It also spells out the ways that common life events – such as a drop in your credit score or being in an accident – can affect your premium.

The one that really got my attention is the “change in credit score” factor. In all but three states (California, Hawaii, Massachusetts) your credit score can help determine your car insurance rate. The difference can be scary-high. 

 

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Does refinancing a car hurt your credit?

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Sometimes stuff happens: illness, job loss, divorce. When things get super-tight and you’re casting around for a cash influx your eye might fall upon that fairly new vehicle. Maybe you should sell it. Or you might wonder, “Does refinancing a car hurt your credit?”

Yes, it can. But in some cases it might be the best – or only – option for when things go sideways. (Looking at you, COVID-19.)

I tackled this topic recently for Self.inc. “Does refinancing a car hurt your credit?” covers the good, the bad and the WTF of this complicated topic.

On the face of it, refinancing a car isn’t a great idea. But sometimes it could be the right thing to do.

The most obvious reason to refinance is because interest rates dropped. This is especially true if you financed with the dealer rather than looking around for loan options. Given that the average new-car loan is $34,635 and the used-vehicle loan is $21,438, even a loan rate that’s just 1 percent lower will make a big difference over time. (Not-so-fun fact: The average used-car loan is 65.15 months long and the average new-vehicle loan is 69.68 months.)

You could even get some cash in-hand if you do something called a cash-out auto refinance, which is similar to a cash-out mortgage refi. If having cash is vital, this might be the right choice for you at this moment in your life.

For example, if you couldn’t make the rent during a COVID layoff, a couple of months’ worth of payments might stave off eviction. Or if you have credit-card debt at 18 percent and were eligible for a cash-out refi at a much lower interest rate, you would be able to pay off the card and improve monthly cash flow. (Ideally you’d use some of that money to start an emergency fund, because the only thing certain is uncertainty and we need to positions ourselves to punch back at it.)

As always, you need to look at the big picture – and to look at it from all angles. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. 

 

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“Nomadland”: An elegy.

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From my first glimpse of the “Nomadland” trailer, I knew that pandemic or not, I would eventually see this movie. For starters, I’ll see anything Frances McDormand is in. The actor is a marvel of nuance. I have loved her work since “Blood Simple.”

Besides, the topic – people imperiled by the Great Recession – is one that I’d written about over and over for MSN Money. I was curious as to whether a director could truly capture that, rather than paper it over with a requisite Hollywood resolution.

Thankfully, director Chloe Zhao didn’t slap on a typical amor vincit omnia verdict – or even a happy ending as such. “Nomadland” represents  everyday life for a lot of people, whether they live on the road or not.

Working as many hours as they can get at whatever job will have them. Wondering whether the money will hold out. Hoping no one gets sick. Banding together with others who are living the same kinds of lives, and supporting one another insofar as it’s possible.

The film moves at a measured, almost mournful pace. In a sense, “Nomadland” is an elegy: not for the American Dream as such, but for the notion that any working person can ever truly be safe.

The fact that some real-life nomads play themselves in the movie is a case in point. It’s doubtful any of them ever thought, “Say, you know what would be cool? Losing everything and having to shovel sugar beets for minimum wage while living in a van in my 60s!” 

 

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Giveaway: Alaska soap and such.

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My friend Linda B. and I took a field trip today, to a small store called Blue Market AK, where the motto is “Refill, not landfill: Unpackaged for a healthy planet.” (Just FYI: “AK” is the postal designation for “Alaska.”) We prowled among shelves full of oils, honey, salsas, spices, organic produce, soap and other personal-care products, non-toxic household cleaners and other interesting items.

To be honest, I felt like I was back in the ’70s. In a good way.

The vibe was friendly, caring, healthy-but-not-insufferable-about-it and, more to the point, intensely Alaskan. About 45 percent of the shop’s vendors are from the Last Frontier, and all of them focus on reducing the environmental impact of producing their delightful products.

The store offers free space for “local makers” to do pop-up sales each week, and donates 1 percent of proceeds to Alaska groups that emphasize sustainability.

With all that emphasis on Alaska, it seemed like a great way to keep my “support the local economy” giveaway streak alive. Consider it a belated Earth Day giveaway. Here’s what you’ll get if you win: 

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Weather, COVID and a deep discount.

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A couple of weeks ago it was below zero. Today it’s supposed to hit 62 degrees. This has been a weird spring, full of weird weather.  

Re the photo at left: Either the greenhouse effect is real, or the remote thermometer in that greenhouse is defective. Maybe a little of each. (The temperature on the right is that of our living room.) This picture was taken on Monday afternoon, when the temperature was in the 50s outdoors –  not what you would call extremely warm, but the angle of the sun hits the greenhouse just right.

About that sun: Sunday, April 18, was the first night of 2021 without complete darkness. According to the National Weather Service, the sky will not darken past “astronautical twilight” until Aug. 25.

If you, like me, are unfamiliar with astronautical twilight, here’s how the NWS explains it: “the level of light observed when the sun is 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon.”

Okay then. Until I moved here I also had never heard the phrase “civil twilight,” either. Live and learn.

Incidentally: The sun rose at 6:23 a.m. today and will set at 9:34 p.m. But thanks to that astronautical twilight, it will seem earlier/later. And, as DF points out, we still have lots of snow left on the ground to amplify that light. Um, yay?

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9 reasons to get a library card.

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The other day on Twitter a guy asked, “Does anybody still have a library card?” Not sure whether the question was plaintive or condescending, but the reaction was both swift and vociferous. The general consensus was, “Of course I do, and I don’t know why someone wouldn’t.”

One person actually said “I feel sorry for (that guy).”

Again, not sure where he weighed in on the topic. Maybe he’s one of those people who thinks he doesn’t need a library card because he has the Internet. But to paraphrase a meme I saw earlier today, “Saying you don’t need a library card because you have the Internet is like saying you don’t need a math teacher because you have a calculator.”

Maybe he was hoping to find his people online, because he’s one of those who got his library card as soon as he could sign his name. One of those who signed up for a new card every time he changed cities. One of those who, even though he reads e-books, swoons when he walks into a physical library and runs his fingers along the spines of the tomes in the “New Reads” section.

That would be me as well. Our libraries are finally open, and today I went back for the first time in probably a year and a half. The building itself is diminished: certain areas are closed off, and the traffic is noticeably lower than usual for a Saturday afternoon. But it was open. And I was finally back among my friends.

By “friends,” I of course mean “books.” I had to stop myself after choosing six. That took some doing, because I happen to know the limit is 50 items. But as much as I wanted to keep browsing, I didn’t want to carry 50 books. Besides, I figured I should save some of the new books for everyone else.

The library is one of my favorite places, and if you consider yourself frugal it should be among your top spots as well. Here’s why.

 

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