I have been a customer of C(Sh)itibank for the last 17 years. I used to do banking with them but, closed those accounts after very frustrating customer service experiences. Since 2002, my only connection with them is their “Upromise” flavor mastercard. I never had any problems with that and was happy to see the cashback going to Upromise every month. I don’t know the background details but, recently they announced that Bank of America will take over the Upromise card and that switch happens at the end of this month. The credit card is still active but, they have already disabled electronic payment option on the account. I went to their website last night to setup a payment but, couldn’t. Thankfully, there is enough time for a paper check to get to them by USPS before the due date. In the last 5 years, this is probably the only time for sending a paper check for any credit card payment.
What if I had tried to setup the payment very close to the due date like I usually do? I wouldn’t have had enough time to mail a check and Citibank would have happily charged me a late fee. Bastards! I know that it will not be noticed as payments are processed by machines and not people but, I wrote a message in memo line of the check, in big bold letters: “CITIBANK, YOU SUCK!” I am so glad my relationship as a customer with this stinking company is coming to an end.
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admin Money & Investing
One of the best wines we have had in a long time: 2005 Fortium Salice Salentino. It is very fruity and smooth. Just wonderful! The problem is that I don’t know where I got it from and I can’t find it at my usual online wine shops. Now, I’ll have to make a round of our local wine shops to find it.
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parag Food and Wine
I wrote sometime last year about micro-finance and had mentioned a website called kiva.org that lets you lend money to people in developing countries. Over the last one and half year, I participated by lending $25 about every month. Over time my loan portfolio grew to 14 loans. Two out of these 14 are already paid-off completely and now, from the remaining 12 loans, I get about $25 back each month in payments. So, going forward I either don’t put new money in Kiva and just recycle the moeny I receive in payments or fund $50 in loans every month.
When I visited the website this morning, they have no loans waiting for funds, all the loans are funded. It is amazing that people are eager to loan money out at no interest to hard-working strangers on the other side of the Earth who are trying to get their small business going. It is worth noting that the default rate on Kiva loans is very small (about 2%). I guess it is safer to help out another hard-working person than puting your money in stock market and watch it disappear.
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admin Money & Investing
A better way of looking at those three Venus photos from the last post. When they are put side-by-side, the change in the appearance of Venus over the last month is very obvious. As Venus is coming closer to Earth, its overall size is getting larger but, the Sun-exposed area that we can see is getting smaller. Hence, a thinner crescent. These photos were taken over the last month at same magnification and were processed identically.
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admin Astronomy, Photography
As Venus is coming closer to Earth, its overall size is getting larger but, the Sun-exposed area that we can see is getting smaller. Hence, a thinner crescent. Click below to see photos taken last month at same magnification and processed identically.
Read more…
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admin Astronomy, Photography
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parag Adit, Ashwini, Kids
This week marks 50th anniversary of 2 products; both of which are somehow related to women. One claimed to have helped improve self-image of millions of girls and the other one got a group of 7 women started in business which I am sure must have improved their self-image and selfrespect. Fifty years ago, Mattel started selling Barbie dolls and a group of women in Mumbai started a home-based business selling “Lijjat Papad“. Both of these brands have become hugely successful over the years and have secured a top place in markets all around the globe.
I remember reading/hearing somewhere that if the Barbie doll is scaled up to human size, her dimensions will be 42D-24-34 which are far far away from any real woman. Don’t know how this helps girls build a better self-image. Googling “barbie real life measurements” gives several different answers.
In our house, Lijjat papad is definitely more popular than Barbie.V and I definitely like to eat papads more than playing with dolls and so do the kids. Ashwini is not much into playing with dolls of any kind. She received a couple of obligatory Barbies from friends and relatives as presents because of her gender but, she doesn’t really care about them.
Adit on the other hand, likes to play with Ashwini’s Barbie. His favorite game is taking her clothes off. Wonder when that is going to stop.
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admin Arts & Culture, Food and Wine, Kids barbie, lijjat papad
Got my eyes checked with the eye doctor. It was just a periodic check-up and I passed with flying colors. There are no horrible physical conditions: no glaucoma, no retinal detachment, no swelling of blood vessels and no macular degeneration. In terms of vision, it is 20/20. This doctor’s office had a machine that measured refractive index of the lens inside the eye. So, it doesn’t depend on your ability to read the chart from distance to figure out if a corrective lens is needed. I have very slight near-sightedness and it will compensate for loss of age-related focusing ability. That means it’ll delay the need for reading glasses by a few years.
I was very happy with this checkup knowing my eyes are in good health. On the other hand, I was a little sad that I won’t be wearing any eye-glasses anytime soon. That dashes my hopes of adding some ‘dignified look’ to my personality.
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admin Me
Over the years, I had started several accounts in dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) or direct stock purchase plans (DSPs). Initially, most of these plans didn’t charge any fees for buying new stock or for reinvesting dividends. Lately, one by one, a lot of them added these fees. I just hate to pay fees and commissions for reinvesting dividends as they eat into total return on investment.
I decided to move all these stocks into my Sharebuilder.com account that offers fee-free dividend reinvestment. Surprisingly, it was a pretty painless process.
- DRIP and DSP administrators quickly issued stock certificates after I made a request online.
- After receiving the certificates, I had to fill out a short form, get it notarized and mailed all of it to Sharebuilder.
- Sharebuilder’s website says that it could take about 4-6 weeks for the stocks to show up in the account online but, it went through in less than 4 days.
I still have a few DRIP accounts left over that don’t charge any fees. Once, they change their policies about fees, those accounts will get the same treatment.
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parag Money & Investing
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