Stealth Wealth Are you under the radar?

When I first started this blog I did a post on tipping and how out of hand it has become in todays society. Unfortunately I accidently deleted that post when making changes to my blog during the summer. So I’ll restate some of my feelings on tipping again with a video on tipping from The Early Show.

I think that tipping is becoming too expected by everyone from servers to hair stylist. In my opinion tips are like a bonus that should be unexpected. It drives me crazy to see people expecting a tip and when they don’t get one or get a small one they get upset. I’m not going to tip someone just because “it’s just what your supposed to do”, I’m going to tip them if they go out of their way to make my evening go very well. If they make sure my glass doesn’t reach empty. If they are very friendly and make me feel comfortable is what it boils down to when your a server or waitress for me.

As for a barber or hairstylist…I don’t see the reason for tipping $10 bucks when your already paying that person to cut your hair. It’s like voluntarily raising the price. If the price for a haircut is $10 why pay $12. Isn’t the service of cutting your hair included in the price?

In the interview on The Early Show the guy talks about giving your hairstylist a holiday tip equivalent to one haircut. I’m glad I’m not a woman because she would be tipping $100 or more possibly.

I just don’t understand why people tip just because it’s what your supposed to do. Don’t you lose the meaning and the value of a tip when it just becomes the norm? Do expected tips create lower value of service instead of a tip making someone work harder to receive a tip? What’s your opinion?

Click here to view the video!

Today I received my paycheck a week early along with a $750 Christmas bonus (more like $500 after taxes were taken out).  It’s good to get the money early for shopping, but now I don’t get paid for 3 weeks.  It’s just psychological because I’m getting next weeks paycheck early, but 3 weeks seems like a long time.  Oh well…

I haven’t wrote much on the site because I haven’t had too much going on.  Just working and paying bills.  I have a couple of websites I’m working on and may release the addresses in the future if I feel that they are worthy for you to look at, but we’ll see how that goes. 

In October I started having to pay some on my hospital bills. I know most of you are tired of hearing me talk about my hospital bills so I won’t mention them too much. Net Income for the month was $1,044.94, this number is somewhat inflated due to the fact that I only paid $24 on my credit card. I have 0% interest so I move left over money into my savings account. Also this month there was a 3 week paycheck which helped by about $225.

NetWorth only increased $190.33 for the month. Credit card balance shot up while my savings also shot up. My Coldwater Creek holdings decreased by almost 30%. I’m actually kinda shocked my networth actually grew.

Here is what my portfolio consist of as of right this moment. I lost 0.001% somewhere

I now own a total of 128 shares of my employer’s stock in my ESPP.  I also own another 65 shares in my sharebuilder account.  That makes a total of 193 shares.

I don’t need this many shares because it is making my portfolio WAY too heavy with the company.  Over 50% of my portfolio is made up of the company.  Shares are trading around $17-$18 per share.  I plan on selling my 65 shares in my sharebuilder account when it reaches about $20.

I’ll be updating my holdings in my ESPP this week.  I get my quarterly statement, which will boost my net worth a little bit.

Also my “new business venture” will be on hold for a couple weeks because I’m helping my girlfriend get her jewelry site up and running in time for christmas.

My vacation this week hasn’t seemed much like a vacation.  I have been busy, but I feel like I haven’t done anything at the same time… if that makes sense.

I’ve started a new business venture. I’ve started a few, but none really turned into anything. I think the one that progressed the most was the record label, which I actually signed one band and recorded an album. The band broke up 8 months later. 

My new “million dollar idea” is a site where people can look up to see what banks are in their town or a town they are moving to in the future. I guess you could call it a bank database. All you have to do is go to the site and enter what state you live in then the county. It will bring up all of the banks in the county with a link to their website.

My original idea was to create a chart of each of the banks in the county and list the type of accounts and services each one has as a way to find out which bank offers what you need. This will more than likely come along later because right now I’m having to look up each bank in each county and type that up. Too bad I don’t have some special code to enter and it bring it up automatically.

Anywho… I’ll probably just do a few of states here in the south as a test run. Here is what plan on doing so far -

1. Create a database of banks in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. (Florida is more populated and I’ll hold off on that one until I finish the above four)
2. Have a link to each bank
3. After completing the databases for the above 4 states I plan to create a chart showing what each bank offers compared to other banks in that county.

Does anyone have anything I could add to make it more appealing or informative?

PS…I have just bought the domain, but I don’t want to release it right now.

Over the weekend and yesterday I have started receiving my hospital bills from my kidney stones.  They breakdown as:

1. Hospital (visit #1) =  $524.63
2. X-ray’s (visit #1) = $85.50
3. X-ray’s (6 weeks later visit #2) = $532.00

#3 doesn’t show where insurance paid anything so  I have to call them and the insurance company.  I don’t think it has had time to go through yet, but they shouldn’t send me a bill until they get paid by the insurance company…just my opinion.

Total so far is $1142.13, but #3 will probably get lower.

I joined yet another site last night.  marketocracy.com is a site where you can practice managing a mutual fund so I gave it a shot and spent a million dollars.  We’ll see how that goes I guess.

I checked on one of my holdings after closing and I saw where Coldwater Creek has fallen about 16% in after hours trading.   I’ll be getting my ESPP statement next week. I’ll be posting my numbers from that.  Also I’m trying to save up $2k to pay for my ESPP in one lump sum for the year.  That will boost my paycheck up by about $75 each paycheck.

I’ll just try to think positive while work on some side project to create some extra income.

Have a good weekend!

Allied Capital Corporation (NYSE: ALD)?  I’ve been looking for new places to put some of my money once I get out of my current holdings.  I’m looking for a somewhat more permanent home that pays dividends.  I want to start in January setting about half of my left over money into dividend paying companies and the other half into paying off one of my student loans.  This is the plan as of now, but if you know me then you know I’ll probably change this  “strategy”

Allied Capital Corp. pays a dividend of about 8.4% they have been paying dividends since 1987.  So I feel somewhat comfortable putting some of my money with them.

Also I’ve been looking at Alliance Bernstein Income Fund (ACG) and DNP Select Income Fund (DNP).  I don’t have much experience with income funds, but they seem like they would provide a steady dividend each month at around 7% - 8%.  One of my goals over the several years is to build up a portfolio that will pay enough dividends for me to retire if I wanted or start my own company.

Does any one know anything about income funds?  I haven’t found where either one I have listed charge me a fee directly for purchasing shares outside of the fee charged by my broker.  Am I missing something?

(I have invested in Advantage Energy Income Fund, but it was too high risk for me and I had Canadian taxes taken out each month.)