Money Green Life

I have been a Netflix subscriber for over one year now and I been enjoying it practically everyday. I was previously a Blockbuster Online subscriber but after I switched, I never looked back. I live in Maryland and all of my shipments come from Gaithersburg, MD location, which is a good 45 miles away from where I live. When I mail in my DVD for return on Monday, I will receive my new movie in the mail by Wednesday. It’s ALWAYS been 2 days for me. It’s never come earlier and it’s never arrived later than 2 days. The reliability of the delivery is phenomenal without a flaw, in my experience.

Although the speedy delivery is nice, what I like the most about Netflix is the streaming capability. I have watched countless number of movies and tv shows through Netflix and the quality of these are exceptional, as long as you have high-speed internet. They’re constantly adding new shows and movies to their already vast number of categories.

The streaming part of the subscription is totally free, as long as you have a subscription membership. Their memberships start out at $8.99/mo which includes 1 dvd out at a time and unlimited streaming video. It goes as high as $23.99/mo which allows up to 4 dvds at a time. If you opt to choose a limited plan which limits to 2 rentals per month, it allows only 2 hours of streaming video. This service is only $4.99.

Not only can you watch your streaming videos online on your computer, there are so many media players that are already Netflix-ready. PlayStation 3 and Wii game consoles already provide Netflix streaming directly to your TV. Another player that’s recently been increasing in popularity is the Roku Media Player, starting at only $80. Whatever service plan or Netflix-ready media players you choose, Netflix will provide you with plenty of online entertainment, whether on your computer or big screen LED TV.

Refer to my other Netflix posts:

Roku Becomes Friendlier with Netflix
Use Your Wii To Stream Netflix, Save 10%
Hulu Competes With Netflix
Netflix Reaches 15 Million Subscribers

Whether you are a student or a parent, it is important to be a step ahead and start saving for college tuition. There’s no escaping the fact that college tuition prices are increasing. Depending on the type of college, the average tuition price has gone up over $1,000 from 2009-2010. Average tuition fees for private 4-year colleges are over $25,000 a year. That’s over $100,000 for all four years. If you’re not smart about saving for the future, you could find yourself in digging into your loose coin collection to help pay children’s college.

Upromise is an online company that was started in 2001 which focuses on providing their members with additional source of college funding contributions. Members earn rebate or contribution from grocery, gasoline, and other purchases. They also earn additional rebate or contribution when they shop online through Upromise shopping portal. It is completely free to sign up and members can start earning rebates and contributions immediately. Members can use the funds they accumulated to pay for college tuition and pay down eligible studen loans. Upromise has contributed over $450 million to their members’ college savings accounts.

When a parent or guardian opens a Upromise account, they can register their child to the account and all the monies that’s earned can be used towards college tuition. The parent can also register their credit card or debit card and grocery membership card and every time those cards are used that the specified merchant, money is earned. The monies earned may not amount to much, but over the course of 15-20 years, it might be enough to help offset some of the total college costs.

Upromise will be even more beneficial to those who enjoy shopping online. By shopping through Upromise shopping portal, you earn additional rebates when making a purchase online. Since more people are shopping online nowadays, it only makes earning that much easier.

More people lose money in the stock market than those who make money simply because they don’t make wise decisions in their stock picks. They fail to do their own due diligence and simply follow one person’s opinion on a particular stock. Also, they fail to have an exit plan for that particular stock they choose to buy. I have been an investor in the stock market for over 10 years now. I have made some wise choices and have also made very poor choices.  Over the years, I’ve learned to take the stock market and the choices I make very seriously. Timing is also very important as making the right choice at the wrong time can cost you big money. Having a good exit plan is also crucial in maximizing your profit.
One blog I like to follow is Invest Long and Short. This blog is written by two authors and they both know what they’re talking about. Their site is updated practically every day with good advice and tips for all kinds of stock picks. I read what they write about every day. It doesn’t mean I follow their advice and recommendations every time, but it does help me perform my own due diligence before I make my final decision whether to buy or sell what is recommended by Invest Long and Short.

If you don’t have an online broker account, there are so many you can choose from. Personally, I have one account with TDAmeritrade. I like them for their flat commission fee of $10.99 no matter what you sell or buy.  Other brokerage firms charge you different amounts depending on how active you are in making trades. You can also try EZTrader and take advantage of special deposit bonus if you sign up and deposit today.

I realize that the economy is not doing very well at the moment so having a few dollars to invest may be a little hard to come by. But if you’ve been following advice from Money Green Life, you probably already saved a few dollars already. Or perhaps you already have been saving money by collecting coins in a coin jar. If you’ve been anything like myself, you probably already have over $1000 saved in coins. That’s a good amount to start investing for the first time.

So, sign up for EZTrader, check out Invest Long and Short, and make your first trade.

How often do you change your light bulbs? If you use the out-dated incandescent light bulbs, you probably find yourself replacing the bulb once every 6 months or so. If you use the more energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs, you might find yourself replacing them every 3-4 years. Now, imagine if you didn’t have to replace your bulbs for 17 years! That’s truly a “set it and forget it” kind of deal.

Recently GE announced a new bulb that will last 17 years before it finally dies. It is an LED (light-emitting diode) version, which is even more efficient that the compact fluorescent counterpart. Their use is very comparable to incandescent as you do not need to wait a few minutes before it is fully bright, as compact fluorescent light bulbs do.

However, the cost for each bulb will be in the range of $40-50 each.

Here’s what you can expect from these new 17-year LED bulbs:

• Expected to consume just 9 watts—compared with 40-watt incandescent/halogen or 10-watt CFL, while delivering nearly the same light output;
• Expected 25,000-hour rated life—will last 17 years (4 hours per day), which is 25 times longer than a general service 40-watt incandescent or halogen bulb and more than 3 times longer than a standard 8,000-hour rated life CFL;
• LED technology delivers the instant full brightness of an incandescent or halogen bulb;
• Durable solid-state design with no filament to break;
• Contains no mercury and will be RoHS compliant; and
• Feels cooler to the touch than CFLs and far cooler than incandescent bulbs.

Expect these new LED bulbs to hit your local supermarket shelves later this year or early next year.

**Update (July 20, 2010)**

Before I left the company, I was offered company stock options at $6/share, but was given no assurance that I would be able to cash it in in the future. I was told that most likely, I would only be able to cash them in if the company ever went public. Of course, I declined the offer. Boy, do I wish I could go back in time. It appears that the ipo price will be somewhere around $14-16/share.

Refer to my list of best online stock brokers to find the one that suits your needs, especially if you would like to purchase a few Ameresco shares on IPO day.

Ameresco, Inc, an alternative energy solutions company, and my former employer recently filed for an Initial Public Offering, valued at about $125 million. The company started back in 2001 and became profitable the very next year. Since then, their revenue increased from some $20 million to over $400 million from 2001 – 2009. It’s an incredible growth and I wish them much more success in the future.

Typically, news like this draws little attention from me, but I took a special notice since less than 4 months ago, I used to work for them. I worked for them for over 6 years and I learned many things and the experience I gained will be useful and practical to me for the rest of my life. I learned about saving energy and recycling, and using compact fluorescent light bulbs and programmable thermostats. I also learned about solar energy use along with other alternative energy applications. It was this company which allowed me to purchase my very first home,  and learned about extra allowances for tax deductions to fatten up my paychecks. Working for Ameresco provided me with inspiration I have today to save energy and money at the same time. It’s where I discovered my inspiration for Money Green Life.