Today I received a question from a reader about the timing of credit card payments. He asked, “Is it better to pay credit off right away or wait until the bill is due?”

Assuming you are in the habit of paying off your credit card every month—and therefore you are never charged interest—go ahead and wait. In the mean time, your cash can earn interest at a bank like HSBC Direct. You don’t want to wait until the last minute as the postal service can be somewhat unpredictable. I’d suggest sending the check at least a week in advance of the due date. This may minimize your interest-earning period, but it’s safer than taking the chance of getting charged a fee for a late payment.

The best solution is to pay your bill using an “ACH transfer,” which is basically a bank-to-bank transfer of money, rather than sending a paper check. This is normally the type of processing that takes place when you pay your credit card online from your card issuer’s website.

If you are not in the habit of paying your credit card bill in full each month, then send money in as soon as possible to reduce your average daily balance. Your interest charged each month is based on the credit card’s rate and your average daily balance, so you are better off reducing that number as much and as soon as possible.

Feel free to send me questions by emailing tips at this domain name. I’m not a financial advisor, but if I can help, I will.

I’ve discovered that I haven’t really had hot water in my new apartment since moving in. I’ve been settling for barely warm showers thinking I was just a victim of poor timing. An adjustment to the hot water heater has fixed this problem as far as I can tell. Now that I can take warm showers, I can more enjoy these articles from MoneyBlogNetwork and beyond.

Before we get to the links, here’s a reminder that I’m giving away two copies of Cash, Cars & College by Janine Bolon. With only 11 comments so far, your chances are still pretty good. Now, on with the show.

AllFinancialMatters asks whether a share buyback or a dividend is “better.” FiveCentNickel has 5 reasons you should care about your FICO score. Free Money Finance says you should ask for more when offered a job.

Blueprint for Financial Prosperity notices that financial gurus insult people. Mighty Bargain Hunter wants to know if you’d get a joint savings account.

Mapgirl explains why you need a personal finance software program rather than just checking your balances online or using only “budgeting” software.

J.D. has seen the light and has come to the conclusion that having a credit card is a good move once one is responsible enough to hold one.

Golbguru wonders whether to shop at Wal-Mart.

Consumerist answers a reader’s question: are better credit card rewards worth a higher APR? They answer correctly as expected: cash back rewards are only for those who pay their balances in full every month.

Yesterday, I shared some data culled by the recent reader survey for Consumerism Commentary visitors. Here’s a little more information, this time about reading habits. First of all, 49.3% readers visit the website directly, while 45.0% prefer using their RSS reader. (I provide a full RSS feed for readers’ benefit.)

Here are some charts revealing how long readers have been visiting, how often readers visit, and how many blogs readers follow on a regular basis. Read the rest of this article »

Back in January I was seriously considering canceling my Netflix subscription. I wasn’t making much use of it for a while, but they continued to charge me every month. Rather than getting rid of the service, I simply decided to watch the movies more often. I’ve been an active user ever since writing about my consideration.

Last night, I received a notification that Netflix is lowering the price for the plan by a couple of dollars to $13.99 plus tax, and this change has been applied to my account automatically.

A reader recently posed this question to Consumerism Commentary:

Are clothes a part of net worth?

In May, I wrote about how to calculate your net worth. Technically, your net worth includes the value of everything you own subtracted by everything you owe. Your wardrobe, shoes, furniture, coin collection, car(s) if you have one, house(s) if you have one or more, are all included in the own category, called “assets.” Your loans, mortgages, credit card balnces, and immediate tax liability if your assets are liquidated fall into the owe category, called “liabilities.”

Your teenage children, while most likely a burden, should not be considered liabilities nor assets—at least not in this country.

Now there’s probably little value in tracking the value of your clothing or shoes from month to month or year to year. Including them in your calculation doesn’t add much useful information if you’re just trying to track your financial progress. For a meaningful calculation, leave them out—but then don’t call your total at the bottom your “net worth,” at least not to other people. Call it whatever you want on your own, but the term, “net worth” has a singular definition among most people and can cause confusion if you use that term to describe your customized calculation.

This doesn’t answer the question of how to include your clothing in a net worth calculation. What you are trying to determine is the price you clothes would fetch if you had to sell them, which is likely an amount well shy of how much you paid. A best guess would probably suffice, and I would hope that this is a situation no one would have to face.

This reminds me, I should revise my future monthly financial reports just so it’s clear I have other assets and liabilities that I don’t include for my own purposes.

Here are some more articles from bloggers about the net worth calculation.

How to Calculate Your Net Worth, here at Consumerism Commentary. “Since the purpose of the calculation isn’t to compare yourself with others, it doesn’t matter what you choose to include as long as you’re consistent each month, and the numbers are meaningful to you.”

Considering Changes to How I Calculate Net Worth, at My Money Blog. “When tracking one’s net worth, whether publicly or privately, I don’t think there is any one “correct” way to do it. People should measure it however they like in order to achieve useful information out of it.”

What’s the Best Way to Calculate Net Worth?, at Free Money Finance. “Personally, I calculate my net worth including the value of my house. But I also know that it’s not a liquid asset that I could convert to cash quickly if I needed to.”

Net Worth vs. Net Investable Assets, at Five Cent Nickel. “I have to admit that I’ve never been a big fan of net worth in its purest form… That is, how much money you’d have if you liquidated all of your investment accounts, withdrew all of your funds from the bank, sold everything that you own that has any value whatsoever, paid off all your debts, and then threw the remainder in a giant pile.”

How to Calculate Your Net Worth, at The Simple Dollar. “Take your total assets and subtract from that your total debt. The resulting number is your net worth.”

Net Worth, Net Investable Assets, and Net Liquid Assets, at Analyzing Wealth. “All of your assets (cash, investments, property, etc.) minus all of your liabilities (loans, revolving debt, etc.). This is a great measurement because it paints the whole picture—how much MONEY do I have? If I sold it all and moved to South Dakota, how much would I be taking with me?”

A few weeks ago, I asked Consumerism Commentary readers to complete a short survey so I could learn a little bit more about who is reading this blog. It was completely voluntary, and I’m happy with the level of response. Thanks to everyone who filled out the survey!

I promised I would share the results with everyone, so I’ll start to do so over the next few days. Here’s a little bit about who you may be.

• 74.5% of Consumerism Commentary readers are 27 years old or older; 94.6% of you are 23 or older.
• Almost two thirds of you (63.9%) are male. 2 of you are undecided (or skipped this question for other reasons).
• A little more than one third of Consumerism Commentary readers are bloggers (34.5%).
• 86% of survey respondents have a Bachelor’s Degree or more education. (One reader pointed out I left Associate’s Degree out of the survey.)

• 24.6% of this blog’s readers earn an annual active income of between $46,001 and $64,000, 19% earn between $64,001 and $88,000, 22.4% earn between $88,001 and $125,000, 5.6% earn between $125,000 and $250,000, and 0.8% earn above $250,001. 11 people skipped this question.

  So there you have it. With the figures above, you can tell whether you fit in with other Consumerism Commentary readers. Soon, I’ll post some of the results pertaining to reading habits, such as how often you visit, how long you’ve been a reader, whether you use the RSS feed, and how many other blogs you read. After that, I’ll share the results about the types of posts you like to read, and how that will likely shape a little bit of what goes on here.

Earlier this month, I read and reviewed Cash, Cars & College: A Young Person’s Guide to Money, by Janine Bolon, a neat little book touching on some of the important aspects of managing money for a teenager looking to someday become a functioning adult, moreso than the average citizen.

I now have the opportunity to give away two copies of this book, as well as additional surprise goodie or two. To participate in the contest in which I’ll choose the winners is simple. There is no purchase necessary, but I do ask you answer a question and leave a valid email address (so I can contact you if you win). Here is that one question:

What single piece of (financial) advice would you like to tell your thirteen-year-old self if technology afforded you the ability to travel in time and meet yourself without any adverse effects, such as destroying the time-space continuum, and why?

Extra “points” will be awarded for creativity, storytelling, humor, and sincerity. I’ll declare an instant winner if anyone can provide an Aaron Sorkin style script in response. Remember, I have two copies, so while the chances of winning depend on the number of comments, they’re twice as good as they would be if I had only one copy.

Here’s a new resource for getting free advice from credit counselors associated with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. The organization has teamed up with MSN, and during most weekdays counselors are on hand at the Ask a Credit Counselor Message Board to answer your questions.

Here’s an example of a recent question and answer session, but I’m only including a portion of the answer.

Question: Two months ago I co-signed a car loan for my son and now he is not making the payments. I don’t need another car, how can I get out from under this one without ruining my credit?

Answer: This is a life lesson on why you should not cosign for a person, even though you were only trying to help. You will not be able to “get out” from the debt. In order to keep your credit in line, you need to consider paying the payments until your son can start resuming the payments himself. A stern conversation with your son may be in order.