Moved To New Location

Thanks for visiting Free From Broke! Please be advised that we have moved to a new server. Make sure to visit us at our new location at Free From Broke.

Thanks for stopping by!

Best And Worst College 529 Plans From Morningstar

Morningstar has released their picks for the top five and worst five 529 college-savings plans. To make their choices, Morningstar "focused on diversification, fees, flexibility, and the underlying funds."

Here are the top five:

- Illinois Bright Start College Savings Program
- Maryland College Investment Plan
- Virginia Education Savings Trust
-Virginia CollegeAmerica 529 Savings Plan (broker sold)
- Colorado Scholars Choice Savings Program (broker sold)

The worst five:

- Ohio Putnam CollegeAdvantage (broker sold)
- Mississippi Affordable College Savings Program
- Mississippi Affordable College Savings Advisor Program (broker sold)
- New York 529 College Savings Program
- Nebraska AIM College Savings Plan (broker sold)

I'm a little concerned that New York's plan is considered one of the worst. Not only do I have two funds under the plan (one for each child) I also said recently that it's a good plan. The main criticism from Morningstar is that the plan doesn't have any exposure to international funds so it's been missing out on international gains and it's not hedged against US economy downturns. Other wise Morningstar says it's moderately priced and they like that it's made up of Vanguard index funds.

Many people, like myself, contribute to their own state's plans since it's likely they get a tax break. But depending on the plan and state you may be better off contributing to another state's plan.

The Wall Street Journal suggests the following when considering a 529 plan:

"• When shopping for a 529 plan, you should consider costs, investment options and asset-allocation strategies.

• Weigh any tax advantages of investing in an in-state plan against the plan's total costs.

• Look for annual asset-based fees of less than 1% for direct-sold plans and less than about 1.3% for broker-sold plans.

• Compare state plans at www.savingforcollege.com, www.collegesavings.org or www.morningstar.com."

Hopefully Morningstar's review will prompt the New York 529 plan to consider some international exposure otherwise I may have to look into some of the better plans.

Do you contribute to a 529 college-savings plan?

Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus. See here for details.

Don't miss out on personal finance articles like this. Subscribe to Free From Broke!

It's A Great Day For Some Carnivals And Other Links

Spring is in full bloom here in NYC! It's been beautiful out the past few days, approaching 80 degrees today. Perfect weather for some carnivals:

Gather Little By Little hosted the 148th Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. My article Saving Money For College When Your Children Are Older was included.

The Baglady hosted the 55th Carnival of Money Stories - Tax Day Edition which included my article Four Ways I Upgraded Out Of My Raises.

Be Thrifty Like Us hosted the 8th Money Hacks Carnival where you can find my article Ben Bernanke Wants Personal Finance Blogs Out Of Business.

Now for some interesting finds from my Google Reader:

25 Questions To Think About Before A Job Interview at MSN Smart Spending. I've never considered myself very good at interviews. Having these questions answered in your head before could be a real help in landing a job!

How To Teach Compounding Interest To Kids at Frugal Dad. I've gone over the concept of compound interest with my daughter but I might use this illustration to see how well she really gets it.

Spending Money Is Good at Cash Money Life. A little expense like flowers can go a long way.

Buying A New House Is Not Cheap: Expenses Not To Forget When Buying A New House by Bible Money Matters. You think the house price is all you have to be concerned with but there's plenty of other expenses to consider as well.

7 Simple Ways To Burst Out Of Bed Each Morning at Dumb Little Man. I'm not a morning person but I'm slowly learning the benefits of getting up earlier (that and I don't have much of a choice these days with an eight and one year olds in the house).

As always check out the carnivals and these other great articles! Enjoy!

Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus. See here for details.

Don't miss out on personal finance articles like this. Subscribe to Free From Broke!

I Switched To Sprint SERO And Saved Some Money

A little over a week ago I signed my wife and I up each for the Sprint SERO cell phone plan. We were already on Verizon Wireless. So why switch? First let me explain our Verizon experience:

We had been looking into upgrading our phones since they were over two years old and we were due a credit for a new phone as part of Verizon's plan. We even went so far as to visit a few Verizon stores but I felt like I was getting the run-around at each. See I was supposed to get $100 towards a new phone. At each location I went to they told me only $50 even though when I called Verizon they confirmed the $100. Two of three of the stores pretended to not know about a buy-one-get-one-free offer that was being advertised. This didn't sit well with me. The next concern was cost. We had a family plan for 700 minutes that could be used between our two lines. This cost us $79.98 without any taxes or extra charges. Any texting was extra. Like 15 cents a text extra. We try to keep our texting below $5 which is what we would pay for their text plan (I don't generally text much but my wife sometimes does). Our bill would end up between $90-$100 a month. Oh, did I mention that we got terrible reception in our home? We've traveled all over and Verizon has had great signals but our luck has it that our service stinks in our living room. So, we were willing to stay with Verizon but our minds were open to finding another service.

Fortunately we never found a Verizon phone deal to upgrade to. I had remembered reading an article from Cash Money Life about how he transferred his cell plan to someone else and ordered the Sprint SERO service. Since we were already off our contract I figured I'd check the plan out. I went back to the post and saw that he got his info from fivecentnickel, checked out his site and checked out the Sprint SERO site. And isn't fate funny? The day after I was looking at the SERO site Cash Money Life published 15 Ways to Save on Your Cell Bill. If that's not synchronicity for you... Suffice it to say I signed us up for two plans.

So what is Sprint SERO? It's the Sprint Employee Referral Offer. Here's the $30 plan:

- 500 anytime minutes (they have bigger minute plans that cost more)
- Unlimited nights and weekends starting at 7PM
- Domestic long distance
- Unlimited mobile to mobile
- Unlimited Web/Data access
- Unlimited picture mail (with compatible devices)

Currently there's unlimited texting until 5/31/08. I was told that they tend to keep extending the free texts. Hopefully this is true.

What I really love about this plan is the unlimited data/web access. I can now access my Gmail account on my phone as well as many other web functions (Gmail is really great for on phones BTW). From what I recall from Verizon their data plan is much more expensive!

But wait. How do I sign up? I don't know any Sprint employees! If you use the email savings@sprintemi.com at the Sprint SERO site you should be fine. This worked for both Cash Money Life and fivecentnickel when they ordered their phones. Check out fivecentnickel's article for details.

Me, I'm still a little paranoid about getting stuff online (there's a bit of irony in there somewhere, no?) so I entered the email address then checked the site for what I wanted. I settled on the Motorola Q9c Smartphone for me and the LG Rumor for my wife. I was a little skeptical about the email address working based on info I read so I picked an employee email from the Sprint Media page (check out this forum on FatWallet.com for SERO info). Next I called their SERO ordering number. I gave the salesperson the email and it went through with no problems. He asked if it was ok for them to check my credit. This is a requirement to make sure you can afford the phones and the plan.

Here's where it paid to speak to a human: online there is a spot to enter any promotions codes you have (you might be able to find some online). On Nickel's site he mentions that he used the code URANG to get a $25 credit on the first two bills. This no longer worked on the site but I mentioned it to the Sprint rep anyway. He was able to still apply the credits to each line so I should be getting a total of $100 back in credits. It always pays to ask! Also, if you order by phone make sure you don't pay for shipping. They wanted to charge me for this but I mentioned that shipping was free when ordered online and they agreed not to charge me (it also pays to check out the deal online first).

So far we love are phones and couldn't be happier with the text and data plans!

Pros:

- $30/month for 500 minutes. That's $60 for the both of us. I went in for the insurance plan on my phone which is $7 extra a month. The phone's a little more expensive than my wife's and we have two kids. Still, this is cheaper than our last plan and has more minutes ($67 versus $79).

- Unlimited data/web and texts. I'm loving having the web on my phone!

- We have a great signal at home now and have had no problems so far with dropped calls (make sure you check your area for service on the site).

Cons:

- Sprint customer service is horrible! You probably don't have even a 50/50 shot at getting someone who knows what they are talking about! Seriously. When I called to activate the phones I mentioned to the rep that we would be porting our old numbers over (you have to order the phone with a new number then port over your old number when you activate the phone if you want to keep your old number). The rep didn't know what to do and at one point told me I had to call Verizon and tell them to release the number. Had I actually done that I might have lost the number! He finally put me on with the porting dept. and they were able to get it taken care of with no problem. Why their reps don't know what the process is I don't know (my guess is their customer service is outsourced to another part of the world). Next, my wife's phone wasn't working. I spent a lot of time over several days getting them to fix the problem. I finally found a woman who was kind enough to take a real interest in my problem and she put a ticket in to tech support. Finally my wife's phone was fixed but it took a LOT of time and patience! Note: If you plan on using your old cell phone number make sure you don't cancel your plan until after you've ported you're number to the new plan. Canceling it before can cause you to lose the number.

- I got the first bill already and it's wrong. They didn't include the credits. More time with customer service not knowing what to do. Eventually I was told that the credits were there it just didn't update. We'll see soon.

- It's not open to existing customers. We switched from Verizon so it was no problem but if you already have Sprint you may not qualify.

All said we are very happy with the phones and the phone service so far. And we're saving money and getting more services from our phones. If you're looking into a new phone plan then you should consider the Sprint SERO plan. Check out fivecentnickel's experience as well as the FatWallet forums and decide for yourself if it's worth it.

Let me know what you think if you sign up or if you already have the plan!

Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus. See here for details.

Don't miss out on personal finance articles like this. Subscribe to Free From Broke!

SwapTree As A Frugal Alternative To Buying New

Do you have any books, CD's, DVD's, or video games laying around that you won't use anymore? I know I do! So what to do with them? One option is a site I was just introduced to call SwapTree. The idea here is that you can trade the books, CD's, DVD's, or video games you have with other people for media items you want. There's no fee for the service. All you have to do is pay for postage and even that is easy since SwapTree will provide you with a shipping label to use (you can use shipping outside of their site as well but you won't get to use their shipping labels).

Here's how it works: You list items you want to trade away on the site by listing the UPC or ISBN code on the item. You can then search the site for items you want (you can also let the site show you what you could get for you item). SwapTree will work it's magic to match up items you have for items you want. If you accept a trade you print out their mailing label (or provide shipping yourself) and mail out your item. The item you are trading for will arrive through the mail.

My concern would be trusting that I get an item in return. Well, what the sites does is it uses a rating system similar to what E-Bay uses. You can check out the rating of the person you would be receiving the item from.

Here's a tip - If you're like me you're a lazy mailer. I tend to pay most of my bills online nowadays and don't mail much out anymore. So here's what to do: Go out and get mailing envelopes before you agree to any trades. This way all you have to do is slap the label on it and send it out once a trade is confirmed. If you wait until a trade is approved to get an envelope then you have to rush to get one and mail it out. (Remember the ratings system? Part of your rating will be how long it takes to get an item). You can go to Wal-Mart or Target and buy envelopes in bulk to save money. And as you trade try to save the envelopes and re-use them.

If you sign up in the next week to SwapTree using this link or use the code swapfrugal when you sign up you will get free postage on your first trade! That should be incentive enough to try one trade. And if you refer friends to SwapTree you can earn additional free postage.

Like I mentioned before, I have a ton of CD's I'll probably never listen to again as well as a bunch of books and DVD's. Next time I go to Target I'm gonna pick up some bubble envelopes and try this out! This will be a great way to enjoy some new movies, books, or music without adding any clutter to the house. This is also a great way to trade away movies your kids don't watch for ones they haven't. Sounds like a frugal alternative to buying items new.

Have you used SwapTree? Let me know you're thoughts!

Sign up with ING Direct and get a $25 bonus. See here for details.

Don't miss out on personal finance articles like this. Subscribe to Free From Broke!