Free 10-year Term Life Insurance

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance is giving away $1 billion worth of life insurance coverage in 2008. Through a program called LifeBridge, MassMutual is offering a free $50,000 term life insurance policy (10-year term) for those individuals who are:

- age 19-42
- parent or legal guardian of a dependent child under the age of 18
- permanent, legal resident of the U.S.
- employed full or part time with annual family income between $10,000 and $40,000 per year
- in good health (as determined by their underwriting guidelines)

Only one policy per household is allowed. Death benefits are paid into a trust for the educational benefit of the insured's children.

A FAQ on this program is available by clicking here, and the LifeBridge eligibility form is here.

For those living in metro Atlanta, MassMutual will be taking applications in person on September 28 between 10am and 2pm at the Ben Hill United Methodist Church in Atlanta.

Green lodging in Georgia

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Arthur Frommer has nothing on me. There are few destinations where people can travel, stay at a beautiful mountain retreat, enjoy a hearty family-style dinner and breakfast, and do so for less than $90. The Len Foote Hike Inn is an hour and a half drive from downtown Atlanta and located in the Amicalola Falls State Park. There is also a 5-mile hike to get to the Hike Inn--there are no roads leading to this property. And they ask that guests bring no cell phones, pagers, or radios... so I'm guessing that also excludes my Blackberry and iPod.

The Hike Inn is the first lodging property in the country to receive the Gold Level Certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for an Existing Building (Gold LEED - EB) by the United States Green Building Council. Given its remote location, the Hike Inn is all about conservation, from the composting toilets and solar panels to its policy of "pack it in, pack it out" since there are no trash cans at the Hike Inn!

This weekend will be my first stay at the Hike Inn, and I have but one concern: my 4 1/2 year old daughter I'm taking with me. I'm scheduling two hours for the 5-mile hike and am planning on packing as light as possible in the event I have to carry her on my shoulders part of the way. Once we get there, I know she'll have a blast. Each of the 20 guest rooms have bunk beds, and she's already claimed the top bunk.

Become a Friend of the Hike Inn for just $15, and you'll recoup this fee through the end of August as the Hike Inn is running a 30% discount for members. Other benefits of joining Friends of the Hike Inn are discounts on merchandise (only available at the Hike Inn) as well as the ability to serve as a volunteer at the Hike Inn.

Summer garden

Last year's garden was a success in that we had a good supply of tomatoes for salsa, and the peppers did finally deliver even though they weren't receiving enough sun. Despite the garden's southern exposure, I underestimated the amount of shade from trees on a neighbor's property from mid to late afternoon, not optimal for a vegetable garden.

So last summer I didn't lay sod on a plot of land in the northeast corner of the yard during the backyard renovation in order to dedicate this area as the new garden location. Since last summer I've spent countless hours digging out rocks/boulders and tilling in compost to prepare the soil. Late last month my wife and the girls planted 10 tomato plants, 15 strawberry plants, and assorted herbs and flowers from seed. The seeds have sprouted, and the garden is on its way to producing!

Hypermiling: Teaching an old dog new tricks

With gas approaching $4.00 per gallon, the economics of driving can no longer be ignored. I knew attitudes were changing when my Dad, who loves driving and commutes about 350 miles a week to work in a car that gets about 30 mpg, told me that he had started carpooling. Others are boarding commuter trains and bus service in record numbers to travel to and from work.

I'm cheap, so last year I read with interest an article about a guy getting over 50 mpg in a non-hybrid vehicle, but many of his methods were extreme (never using the air conditioner) and often dangerous (like taking a 25 mph turn at 50 or drafting directly behind a semi). With gas at $2.139 last February, these "hypermiling" tactics weren't worth it as I only fill up once or twice a month. Times have changed, and even though it cost over $75 at $3.769 per gallon, I was looking forward to filling up my '96 Ford Explorer (an automatic with all-wheel drive) this morning because I wanted to calculate its fuel mileage.

For the last month I've been utilizing several hypermiling techniques:

1. Inflating my 35 psi-rated tires to 40 psi
2. Removing excess weight (tools in the trunk)
3. Eliminating jackrabbit starts by accelerating gradually
4. When approaching a stop sign or red light, putting the car in neutral and coasting to a stop (known as forced auto stop)
   
5. Turning off the ignition at long stop lights
6. Using cruise control
7. Maintaining a highway speed of 55-60 mph
   

Fortunately I was already in the habit of documenting mileage, gallons of gas, and price per gallon at each fill-up, so I was able to calculate my average gas mileage for 2007 at 15.6 mpg. My average cost of gas last year was $2.74 which correlates to 17.5¢ per mile (cost per gallon ÷ miles per gallon). Thus far in 2008 I was averaging 14.8 mpg at $3.13 per gallon or 21¢ per mile.

After utilizing the above hypermiling techniques, I am now averaging 17.3 mpg, an 11% improvement over 2007 and 17% better than my average this year! And while gas now costs 20% more than my 2008 average, the cost per mile remained steady at 21¢ per mile.

For additional information on hypermiling, visit this post on CleanMPG.

Never again: Self-storage rental

Reading a story about how the foreclosure crisis is impacting other industries reminded me that several years ago I made a thousand dollar mistake. That's right--I rented a self-storage unit for just a few months. And as anyone who has ever rented a self-storage unit can attest, a few months can quickly turn into a year or longer.

For reasons I believe involved an offer of a free month's rent as well as a plan to clear out part of our basement in preparation for an upcoming yard sale, my wife and I signed the paperwork to rent a unit for $99 a month and filled up our temporary garage. We moved furniture, full-size arcade games, unused equipment from my wife's former startup business, and building materials for our rental properties. I recall the warm and fuzzy feeling of being able to park a car in one bay of our drive-under garage. Of course we still had too much crap to be able to park both cars in the garage, but it was a start.

And then I'm sure that life just got in the way. A year later I moved whatever hadn't sold back into the basement, where I'm sure it is again collecting dust. There is no longer room to park a car in the garage, but one day I will reclaim the basement and the garage with the help of eBay and Craigslist. Soon, I hope!

Vacation locally

My wife just enjoyed a well-deserved long weekend in New York away from the family for the first time in 4 1/2 years (since my girls were born), which meant I had sole responsibility for the first time as well. The full-time parenting I was prepared for... what I feared was having to do their hair for the first time!

The girls and I kicked around the idea of going out of town for the weekend, but circumstances led us to stay close to home. We definitely wanted to get away, though. So we decided to book a hotel room in downtown Atlanta for the weekend and take a vacation in our home town. It was a great solution, despite the street closures from the tornado that struck downtown Atlanta a week ago (note photo taken on Saturday: the Omni Hotel's new tower on the left is open while their older tower in the center is closed).

We had a very full weekend and with the exception of the Georgia Aquarium, visited the main tourist destinations: Zoo Atlanta, Centennial Olympic Park--the Children's Playground was a hit, and the World of Coca Cola. We walked and used MARTA rail to get around downtown, and riding MARTA made me wish Cobb County wasn't so ignorant as to not support a regional light-rail transit system. Perhaps that will change with gas approaching $3.50 a gallon, since years of poor air quality have not.

Stretching The Budget: To save on admission to the World of Coca Cola, show your MARTA Breeze card for $2 off each ticket. For other fun things to see and do in Atlanta, visit Viator and enter "FABSAV" (without quotes) as the promotion code for a 7% savings. I'm giving my wife an Atlanta Segway Tour as part of her birthday gift. To keep the hotel cost down, go through Ebates for a 2% rebate and then book the room through Hotwire. Lastly, to save on parking (my hotel charged $18 a day for self-park), consider parking at one of MARTA's stations with long-term secured parking for as little as $4 per day.

Soap box warning... If Atlanta wishes to ever become a major tourist destination, it needs its tourist attractions to be open during minor holidays such as Easter. Both the World of Coca Cola as well as Imagine It!: The Children's Museum of Atlanta were closed last Sunday. I understand the desire to allow employees to be with family on Easter, but you don't find Disneyworld closed on Easter (nor any other day of the year).

Garden update

It's been three months since planting, and we've already made our first batch of salsa with tomatoes from the garden. Unfortunately the peppers aren't getting enough sun and the sunflowers were devoured by birds.

The tomato plants look like they'll keep producing for a good month, and the Sugar Baby watermelons are coming along just fine.

Sometimes it hurts being an early adopter

Fortunately my home phone service was already in the process of being moved from Sunrocket, but for others, this isn't good news:

from: sunrocket@sunrocket.com
date: Jul 19, 2007 7:34 AM
subject: Important Message from Sunrocket

Dear Customers,

After significant effort by the Company to avoid this result, SunRocket is in the process of closing its operations and therefore will no longer be able to provide you with the phone service that you have been accustomed to. However, this email provides you with an opportunity to sign up with select service providers who we believe will offer outstanding replacement service

In order to assist you, we have entered into negotiations with a number of service providers. As a result of those negotiations, we have entered into agreements with 8x8, Inc., provider of the Packet8 service, and Unified Communications Corp., provider of Teleband service to offer you the best options and we are proud to recommend the following alternatives to you. Please make your decision to move to a new service provides immediately as future service is uncertain.

8x8/Packet8

The Packet8 Internet phone service incorporates patent protected technology from 8x8. Inc., a publicly traded company in business for more than 20 years. The service works in the same way as SunRocket.s and offers a virtually identical feature set.

. No Startup Costs
. FREE activation
. FREE equipment
. FREE shipping
. FREE first month of service
. Quickly port your number at no charge

A Savings of over $100!

Copy and paste the following link into your Internet browser: http://getpacket8.packet8.net/sunrocket/ or call 1-800-868-0068 and mention special offer code SUNROCKET

Unified Communications Corp./TeleBlend

The TeleBlend Internet phone service incorporates patent-protected technology from Unified Communications Corp., a privately held company in business to provide outstanding customer service and telephony products. Teleblends has been working behind the scenes already to restore and continue service for all Sun Rocket customers The service works in the same way as SunRocket.s and offers an identical feature set with our Unlimited Transfer Plan.
. No Startup Costs
. FREE activation
. USE your existing hardware
. FREE and Quick transfer of your current number
. No Need to port your number to another provider
. UNLIMITED calling to the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico

Copy and paste the following link into your Internet browser: http://www.myteleblend.net

It has been our pleasure to service you at SunRocket!

Visit Amusement Parks for FREE!

There are numerous scam "mystery shopping" websites, but I wanted to highlight one that is completely legit: Amusement Advantage. Should you choose to apply, be sure and have 25-30 minutes available to register.

I live in Atlanta, and they currently have 5 open assignments (opportunities for prospective mystery shoppers) for Six Flags over Georgia, two for weekdays and three for weekends, as well as 3 weekend assignments for Zoo Atlanta.

The requirements of an assignment as well as the payment varies, but don't expect to quit your day job to become a mystery shopper.

Out of Pocket Cost
For the Six Flags assignment, the shopper is required to: purchase at least one ticket at the ticket booth, buy a prepared food item at a food location, pay to play an employee serviced game, and make a purchase at a gift shop. Here is my "back of the envelope" calculation of the minimum cost for a family of four (two adults & two children--a 4-year old and the other child under 2): $10 parking + a children's ticket is $29.99 + $3 tax (no fee for children < 2) + $30 for food + $5 for the game + $5 for a gift shop purchase ~ $83.

Shopping Requirements
The assignment requires the shopper to have a digital camera and spend 5-6 hours at the park. In addition to the above tasks, the shopper also needs to take 10-15 pictures of employees without name tags as well as any conditions that warrant a picture (such as overflowing trash cans, etc.). After the visit, the shopper will need to upload the photos and complete a 10-12 page evaluation that will take 2-3 hours to complete. Receipts for the ticket booth, food service, and retail purchase will also need to be submitted.

Pay
In return for completing the assignment, the shopper will receive 2 tickets to Six Flags before the "shop" and 2 tickets after. Amusement Advantage indicates that these 4 tickets are worth $175.96, but you can buy tickets online for $39.99 each + $3 charge for "Print-n-go" = $162.96.

I look at mystery shopping as a way to offset some of the cost of visiting an entertainment venue that I already plan on visiting. Should you choose to become a mystery shopper, don't forget to look at other states for assignments before leaving on an out-of-state vacation!

Save big by shopping online

Like many, I loathe shopping in retail stores and most of my purchases are made via the Internet. Prior to making a purchase, I follow several steps to ensure I'm getting the best deal and doing so has saved me thousands:

1) Conduct a Google search to find out if there's a coupon code or promotion available for the item I want to purchase or the merchant from which I'm planning on purchasing the item
2) Check eBay to see if someone has the item available in new or nearly-new condition
3) Search the SlickDeals and FatWallet forums to learn if anyone has found a better deal or an obscure rebate on the item I want
4) Look up the prospective merchant via one of several commission rebate sites and select the site giving the best cash back on the merchant who will get my business

For the fourth step, my sites of choice are Upromise, Ebates, and FatWallet. I checked my commissions from these sites in preparation for writing this entry and was surprised that my commission rebate checks totaled $636.82 over the last 4 years. I've received $392.82 from Upromise, $209.49 from Ebates, and $34.51 from FatWallet.

The premise behind Upromise is terrific--it was started to give families an easy way to save for college. You can even link a 529 plan from Vanguard or one from 8 states so that funds are automatically transferred to your child's 529 account. Some of the companies offering cash-back through Upromise include Exxon, eBay, McDonald's, CVS, Wal-Mart.com, and many others.

Should you choose to sign up for Ebates, do so by clicking here so you'll get a $5 bonus for signing up; I get a $5 referral bonus as well. As long as your cash-back amount is greater than $5, you'll receive a check each quarter. Just a few of Ebates' participating retailers include iTunes, Sears, REI, OfficeDepot, NetFlix, and Gap.

FatWallet has both forums as well as offering commission rebates, and I've recently found that they often give 1 to 2 percentage points more than Upromise or Ebates. Many of the participating retailers overlap those that participate in the Upromise and Ebates programs, but several of those offering a higher commission rebate include Target, Newegg, Apple, Kmart, Snapfish, and uBid.com.

A new entrant and competitor to the previously mentioned sites is Jellyfish which gives commission rebates but also has a live show 24/7 that is basically an online version of the Home Shopping Network with fluctuating prices. Again, it has many of the same retailers participating, but I noticed that Jellyfish is offering a 7.5% rebate from Target vs. only 4.4% from FatWallet and 4% from Ebates & Upromise. It's certainly worth a look.

The dangers of DIY... stories you won't hear on HGTV

While I've had my share of home improvement accidents... falling off a roof, falling through a ceiling, smashing fingers with a hammer, and severe burns from dripping solder while plumbing... I've never experienced anything that came close to being life-threatening. Others aren't so fortunate, and The New York Times has an article today on the dangers of do it yourself home repair. Warning: this article isn't for the squeamish.

Grow, damnit!

The title for today's blog was from a sign in my great Uncle Paul's garden. While Uncle Paul is long gone, those words live on since every time I think of planting a garden I'm reminded of them.

As I continue to work on the living room renovation, this weekend I took some time out with my 3 1/2 year old daughter to plant a garden. For years I've wanted to grow tomatoes and peppers for my wife's homemade salsa but never did. Since my daughter has asked to plant one for a couple of months, I told her we could as long as she would help. I let her know there was a lot of work involved in planting a garden, but she was eager to help. I thought it would be a great educational opportunity for her but quickly realized this applied to me as well.

Last week I was on the road all week, so Friday night she and I had some daddy/daughter time at the park and then went to Home Depot for Sugar Baby watermelon, Cayenne pepper, and Lemon Queen sunflower seeds. Then it was off to Pike Nursery to get Jalapeño pepper and Big Boy tomato starter plants. Saturday morning we got our tools together and loaded some compost into the wheel barrow to dump it on the site we'd chosen for our garden.

It was during this process that I learned what my wife already knew. "Daddy, can we plant a garden?" really means, "Daddy, can I watch you do all of the work to prepare the garden so that I can do the fun stuff like plant seeds, transplant the starter plants, and spray the water hose?" She was a good sport, and I was able to cajole and bribe her into helping me with most of the work, especially picking up acorns and rocks from our future garden. I was able to get my rototiller working, which saved us a lot of time in preparing the soil. By Sunday afternoon, everything was in the ground. We should start harvesting peppers and tomatoes around the second week of July.

DIY iPod TV video cable

I received a 30gb video iPod last fall, and I've quickly filled it with hundreds of songs and dozens of videos. I knew it had the capability to send the video output to a TV, but I didn't want to spend $20 on Apple's proprietary cable.

I already had a cable that should work, but matching my cable colors to their corresponding RCA input jacks on the TV didn't produce a picture. I decided to try other combinations of the colors to see if that might work, and sure enough....

Below are the pairings of cable color with video/TV RCA input:
Yellow out --> White in
White out --> Red in
Red out --> Yellow in

Keypad entry code for Ford Explorer

My weekend was spent trying to get some things done that had been on my to-do list for a while and that I planned to start working on after filing for unemployment on Monday. Plans changed for the better, though. I found myself reading and re-reading a Chilton's manual, learning from other in the ExplorerForum, running to the auto parts store, and working under my '96 Explorer replacing all four original shock absorbers (long past their useful life after 158,000 miles) and changing the transmission filter, also original. After owning it for 7 years, though, I was most happy to finally learn what the 5-digit keypad entry code is on my Ford Explorer.

My local Ford dealer had previously quoted a price of $70 to determine this code for my vehicle, but the knowledge wasn't worth the cost. Patience has saved me $70, as has the ExplorerForum [read the thread here]. You'll find the code printed on a sticker located on the gray GEM System control module tucked away in the rear compartment that houses the rear window washer reservoir, jack, and lug wrench.

My next project will be to change all 13.9 quarts of transmission fluid rather than just the 3 quarts you can easily change installing a new transmission filter.

Do it yourself auto maintenance

When I turned 16 and started driving, I didn't know a tie rod from a leaf spring, but I was fortunate enough to have a shade tree mechanic neighbor who, along with my Chilton's manual, taught me the basics. I've done my own car maintenance ever since. If you don't have a handy neighbor, you're in luck... and don't even have to leave your PC to learn things like how to change your oil.

With my 11 year old Ford Explorer hitting 158,000 miles, I know I need to be more diligent about its maintenance. So this morning at the crack of dawn I picked up new oil, air, and transmission filters along with a case of Mobil 1 synthetic oil.

What would have cost $150 and taken several hours of my time at an auto repair shop was only $67.67 and took only an hour. I also have the peace of mind in knowing the job was done right. And if I can do it, anyone can.

Saving on prescription drugs

Working for a Fortune 500 company, I have a good health plan along with prescription coverage. While my doctor co-pays have remained steady over the last several years, I've noticed that my prescription co-pays have risen dramatically.

The area of greatest expense is with formulary prescription drugs (i.e., brand-name medications or those for which there is no generic equivalent). FDA guidelines require generic medications to contain within 20% the active medication of its non-generic counterpart. So while generic medications could potentially have 20% more active ingredient, would you presume drug companies would actually provide more for less?

When my wife was recently written a prescription for a medication she has used in the past, she knew that the efficacy of the generic was poor compared to that of its formulary counterpart. Since our prescription coverage only pays for a percentage of the cost of formulary medications, we know to shop around, despite having insurance. After calling all of the major local pharmacies, we found that the least expensive one was Sam's Club. At the bottom of the pack and 45% more expensive than Sam's Club was Eckerd Drugs. Others such as Kroger, Publix, Costco, Walgreens, and CVS all fell somewhere in between. It once again reinforced the old adage that it pays to shop around.

Monetizing your frequent flier miles

What? I travel quite a bit for business, and these travels usually result in a premium status with an airline or two as well as accounts full of frequent flier miles at the end of the year. Having young kids makes it really inconvenient to travel by air for leisure trips, and you can forget about taking a spontaneous weekend trip to... well, anywhere unless it's within driving distance, so these frequent flier miles accumulate.

It's not unusual for one or more of my frequent flyer account(s) to have balances of 100,000+ miles. When I've accumulated 75k+ miles, I do what I've done for the last 10+ years--I contact my ticket brokers to convert my frequent flier miles into dollars.

Why? If you choose to embark on this path of selling frequent flier miles for cash, expect to earn 1.5 to 1.75 cents per mile, making a 25k redemption ticket worth $375 to $437.50. When load factors are high, your ability to squeeze more money out of the broker goes up. In addition, I've found that the more miles you have, the more bargaining power you have with a broker. And brokers can move your miles faster if they're from an airline with a global footprint rather than from a regional carrier. From miles earned through flying, airline rewards credit cards, dining, and airline affiliate partners, it's pretty easy to accumulate and sell over 100k miles in a year, worth over $1,500.

How? First off, understand that you're not really selling miles--you're selling a ticket which has been redeemed with miles from your frequent flier account. For this, you'll need a minimum of 25k miles and preferably 50k+ to make it worth the while.

Selecting the right ticket broker is key. Don't use just any ticket broker; I use brokers I've worked with for years who I trust and who I interviewed to ensure they only sell my miles/frequent flier tickets to those they trust so as to not raise the suspicion of airline personnel who can deem a purchased frequent flier ticket void and cancel it on the spot.

Should you choose to work with a broker by selling miles, here are some questions to ask:

1. What is the broker's vetting process to ensure the traveler purchasing my miles/ticket (via this broker) understands they should be silent about how they acquired the ticket?
   
2. Will I know/have the name of the individual traveling on my miles along with their itinerary information? You should. If you're ever questioned by the airline, you need to know who's using your miles.
3. Has the broker ever been investigated by an airline for being a broker?
4. Have any sellers (to the broker) ever had their frequent flier accounts suspended or penalized for working with the broker?
5. How are the service charges for the frequent flier tickets paid? My recommendation is to have these charged to your (the seller's) personal credit card to be reimbursed by the broker.

Note: This is a work of fiction, since the practice described violates the terms & conditions of participating in an airline's frequent flier program. There is a good article here which summarizes the risks, and I can vouch for its accuracy (including the tenacity of the airline they mentioned to crack down on the activity).