Getting Access to More ATMs

Need money and cannot find your bank's ATM anywhere? Here is how to have more ATMs available.

Open a bank account that uses Allpoint ATMs

The Allpoint Network is one of the largest ATM networks I have seen. Allpoint ATMs can be found in a lot of different stores like CVS, Target, Vons, liquor stores, and gas stations. Though, there isn't a rule of thumb which brand stores has Allpoint ATMs. I have seen a CVS store with a WaMu ATM and a Vons with a Wells Fargo ATM. Unfortunately, you will have to scope out the area or use Allpoint's ATM locator to find them.

Open a bank account that uses CO-OP ATMs

With a Credit Union account, you can gain ATM access to most credit unions and 7-Eleven. For me, 7-Eleven is a big factor because they are one of the easier convenience stores to find. Finding a credit union is probably the semi-hard, depending on where you live. The NCUA symbol (instead of the FDIC symbol) is the easiest way to identify if a bank is a credit union. Of course, this requires you to actually get of your car and look.

Use Cash Back Debit feature on your Check Card

If all else fails, you can purchase an item and get cash back from a supermarket or store that offers you to pay with your debit card. Though, you have to make sure that you have the opportunity to enter in a PIN number, or you are most likely using the credit feature of your card. Additionally, you are limited on the amount you can receive as cash back.

Using Delicious as a General Search

Delicious has been one of the most underrated Yahoo sites that I use very often. Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows you to post, share, and tag links online. The sharing feature of the site is very useful when you want to find interesting or significant links.

For example, if I want to find relevant sites about money, I would do the following:

• Go to http://www.delicious.com/
• Click Explore a tag which is located on the upper right corner of the landing page.
• In the Explore Everyone's Tags page, you would type in money into the input text box. Then click on the search button which is located on the right side of the text box.
• The next page you receive is the Recent money Bookmarks page. Right below the title, there is a See all money bookmarks in Popular or your Bookmarks or Network. Click on the Popular link located in this sentence.
• Now, in the Popular money Bookmarks page, which should give you a list of popular links that other users posted up with the tag money.

If there isn't enough popular links for you to digest, you can always go back to the Recent money Bookmarks page which will show links that have been recently posted. You will have to scan page by page for the links you want. Though, chances are good that you will find a popular one because users have a tendency of always re-posting a link they like in Delicious.

Book Review: The 4-Hour Workweek

A couple months ago, The 4-Hour Workweek was one of the hottest books selling on Amazon. As of today, Amazon ranks it as the #67 bestselling book on the site.

As an author, Timothy Ferriss isn't bad on content. At times, the author seems to bask in the glory of his successes. Very often, it gets in the way of the information he is trying to present.

Though, setting aside Timothy's personality, the book is very informative on what goals you should achieve in his version of the "new rich". The obvious main goal is to delegate as much as possible while using your time on important matters. In his world, the time necessary to maintain his lifestyle is four hours a week. Yet, his lifestyle isn't to become the "super rich". His lifestyle is a balancing act between doing as much as he needs to while enjoying the finer things in life.

There are many tips that any person may find useful. I find the idea of using virtual assistants interesting. Another idea he suggests is to use eBay or a website to find out if a product has a market and how much. He also makes you realize that you need to face a lot of psychological fears in order to succeed like him. This is only a small subset of ideas he presents in the book.

In summary, I recommend this book to anyone who is very open minded on the ideas he presents. You need to make your own judgment on what content you wish to take away or try yourself. He does not pretend that all the skill necessary are easy to accomplish.

How to make your brokerage account act like a savings account

At one time or another, I was examining the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) as an alternative to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). At times, I debate with myself whether or not SIPC would be a good way to keep more than $100,000 in one institution. You can find a description of the protections in the SIPC brochure web site.

If you want to make a SIPC protected brokerage account have similar returns and low risk as a savings account or money market account, you can go buy a short term bond ETF like the Lehman Short Treasury Bond Fund (SHV) or the Lehman 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Fund (SHY). Depending on your brokerage, you will have to handle the commissions yourself. Though, if you manage your expenses well or find a brokerage that offer commission free trading, you will find that the returns are very comparable. It is even safer since you know you are buying funds that represent treasury bonds from the government.

In SIPC protection, you have to realize that there is no guarantee to maintain value like FDIC where there is a guarantee of no loss. As with the nature of buying stocks, mutual funds, and bonds on the open market, the price can change at any time. So, if the brokerage were to fail, it may take up to three months to get your securities back. Though, if you hold bond securities like I described above, the loss in value is very minimal due to the risk profile of those investments.

Risks

There are three types of risks that I acknowledge in everyday life:

Unnecessary Risks

These are the type of risks where you will lose the majority of the time. An upside may not even be present. There is a tendency to act on these types of risks when you do not have enough information and the rewards appear to be too tempting. Avoid them at all costs.

Calculated Risks

Calculated Risks are risks that are most of the time valued to gain or at least break even. You can gain in a couple of scenarios below:

• The chances of losing are high. The cost of a loss is low. The gain of a win is high
• The gain of a win is low. The cost of a loss is low. There are more chances to win than lose.
• The chances of win or lose is equal. The gain of winning is higher than the cost of losing.

The best types of calculations I have seen to decide on these types of risks are expected values (EV). With EV, you can weigh risks with probability, gains, and losses. You will be able to calculate how much you should put on this type of risk. If you put in as much as EV, you are expected to break even if repeated multiple times. So, it would be towards your advantage to put in less than EV.

Necessary Risks

These are the type of risks you must take. These are situations where not taking the risks will have greater consequences than what you can gain by taking it.

How to make everything work for you

The first is to acknowledge the existence of all types of risks. Only then can you identify them as you come. Try to avoid all unnecessary risks. This is much harder than everyone thinks because emotion always kicks in to sway in the direction of unnecessary risks. Even necessary risks may look deceiving because you think the choice is too obvious. Lastly, if you lose, think about whether or not you decision would have changed if you didn't know the result.