American Express Small Business Saturday

Forget Black Friday!  If you have an American Express card, I urge you to take advantage of their Small Business Saturday promotion.  Sign up on their website and you can get a $25 credit for buying something at a small business.  Most local restaurants and stores count so treat yourself to a nice meal while helping your local businesses.  Just make sure you spend at least $25 in one transaction after registering to get the credit.  It is too good a deal to pass up!

Buffett Quote Series #1

So I haven't posted in almost a month now mainly because I've been pretty busy with school work.  I thought I'd try to do a series of posts on something I've been wanting to do for a while which is talk about some of the great quotes from one person I admire greatly (along with many others), Warren Buffett.  Here is the first part of my series with two quotes I pulled.

To Itemize Or Not

It is a big relief to be finished with my hell week. I had 5 midterms in 4 days this past week so I've been extremely busy the past couple weekends studying. I thought I'd talk this week about itemizing deductions on an individual tax return and when you should do it over taking the standard deduction.  of course, this means you stay organized throughout the year and keep track of all your expenses. 

Internet Safety

I found a very interesting video online that matched the theme of my last post on password security.  We all access information online nowadays and it is important to keep vigilant when connecting to important financial accounts.    Always be on the safe side when browsing the internet and make sure you have up to date security.  I  use Microsoft Security Essentials but just make sure that whatever software protection you use  is up to date.

Protecting Your Passwords and PINs

There is a surprising (or perhaps unsurprising) lack of sophistication with how many people set PINs and passwords.  A study done by Data Genetics analyzed passwords from released or exposed password tables and found that the most common 4 digit password was "1234."  "1111," "0000," and other strings of the same number were also very common.  A list of most common passwords published by SplashData include "password" and "123456."  Others on the list that might be slightly more sophisticated include "qwerty" and "qazwsx" for passwords and "2580" for PINs.  You can easily see that these just have to deal with the placement of the characters on the keypad or keyboard to help people remember them easily.  However, this makes it extremely easy for someone to just guess what your secret code is if you lose your ATM or credit card.