I came across this today:

Whatever the reason, experts say that at our core, there’s one reason we find wealthy men attractive: instinct. Women, research shows, rank the ability to provide as the most important quality when selecting a mate. Men, not surprisingly, prize a woman’s looks and youthfulness over her other qualities, because those are indicators of fecundity. It’s all about finding the best person to breed with.

As it turns out, we’re all just slaves to our prehistoric urges, even in an era when none of those millenniums-old rules would seem to apply…

A 2006 study done through the University of Chicago shows that men who post online profiles indicating income of $250,000 a year generate significantly more contacts (up to 151% more) than those who make under $50,000…

The article continues to say that the relationships formed between wealthy men and younger, beautiful women start off great but aren’t made for long-term relationships. So here are a few questions. Do you believe money is a turn-on? Can long-term relationships be formed with a disparity in wealth?

Is Money an Aphrodisiac?, Kris Frieswick, MSN Money, July 4, 2008

Every week, cash back credit card deals are decreasing. American Express recently emailed me to let me know that they have lowered the cash back rate on their SimplyCash Business Card from 5% to 3% on gas station purchases. If this is your card, it might be time to seek out another deal.

Here are a few suggestions designed to maximize your cash back based on your spending habits.

Blue Cash from American Express.

If you use credit cards for most of your spending, you might like this card. While the first yearly $6,500 of your spending is subject to only 1% cash back on “everyday” purchases (including purchases at gas stations, supermarkets, and drug stores) and 0.5% cash back on everything else, once you pass that threshold, you will earn 5% cash back on your “everyday” purchases and 1.5% cash back on everything else.

Discover Open Road Card.

If you’re not a heavy spender on your credit cards but you’re still looking for the best deal, the Discover Open Road Card may be a good choice. You will earn 5% cash back of the first $100 you spend each month on gas and auto maintenance. In other categories, you will earn 0.25% or 0.50% cash back. Spend more than $3,000 over the entire year and you’ll earn 1% cash back on your spending in excess of this minimum.

TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express.

Even if you don’t shop at Costco, this card provides a good cash back bonus. You can earn 3% back on gas, as long as you don’t buy 75 gallons or more in one transaction. There’s no yearly limit to this cash back, however. The catch here, as you might have guessed, is that you must be a member of Costco in order to qualify for this card.

Note: This is a “business” card, but you can apply as an individual.

Chase BP Visa Rewards Card.

If you’re loyal to these brands of gasoline, this card provides a strong 5% cash back rebate for your purchases at BP or Amoco stations. You’ll also receive a 2% cash back rebate in other categories and 1% cash back on everything else (except gasoline sold at gas stations branded with anything other than BP or Amoco). BP has low prices on the path of my commute, but usually not the lowest. The question is whether the larger cash back amount will offset the slightly higher price.

As with any rewards-offering credit cards, taking advantage of cash back depends on your ability not to carry a balance, accrue interest, or pay late fees. Any method of using a rewards credit card other than paying the balance in full every month will negate any benefit offered by the issuer.

In June I managed to save over $4,000 of my income for myself after all expenses were paid. That doesn’t mean that my net worth grew during June, however, as I explained earlier today. While I was able to add to my savings and investments, poor performance in the stock market caused my accounts to decline, which I hope is a temporary situation.

This post contains a look at my income and expenses for the month of June, though some lines are ignored to present a report that is a mix between an income statement and a cash flow report. I don’t bother with unrealized gains or losses here, but I don’t include money transferred to savings as an expense.

Continue reading this article to see my financial data for the month of June. Read the rest of this article »

Last month, I shared my belief that I would not make my net worth goal for the year, and June has been a step backwards. I ended the month with a modified net worth of $155,596, over $2,000 down from the end of May.

For any readers new to Consumerism Commentary, I post financial updates every month. This balance sheet, combined with an income/expense report, help me keep track of my progress.

I hope that monthly declines in my net worth continue to be few. The last time I experienced a monthly decline was in May 2006, a decrease of 1.3% and before that, May 2005, a decrease of 5.9%. Keep reading to see my current balance sheet with explanations. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the table. Read the rest of this article »

With some anticipating rate increases from the Federal Reserve, we might start seeing more banks increasing the interest rates offered on savings account. E*TRADE Bank is ready, and they’ve announced an increased from 3.15% to 3.30% APY starting tomorrow, July 2.

I keep my company stock purchase plan investment with E*TRADE, though not by my choice. I haven’t had any problems with the investing arm of the company. When I sell more company shares, I plan on opening an E*TRADE Bank savings account. I’ve held shares for the last nine months or so, waiting for the company’s stock to head upwards.

Which rule applies to investing: the wisdom of crowds or herd mentality?

According to James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, all you need in order to make good decisions—good investing decisions being a subset of all good decisions—is a diverse, independent, decentralized, and aggregated crowd to follow. Let the mob mentality, or the most intelligent in that community, do the work and blindly follow. The theory of crowd wisdom will surely lift the value of your investments.

Even if this theory is correct, it’s difficult for everyday investors to follow in practice for a number of reasons.

1. Hype masks true information. Mass media will occasionally provide information about the most diverse, independent, decentralized, and aggregated slice of the crowd, but that information is usually uninteresting to the mass audience. In a culture where the transmission of information relies on the ability to sell advertising space, ratings rule over information. The media would much rather tell a story about celebrities forced into foreclosure than one about today’s safe real estate investments.

2. Personal bias. The most extreme form of this is the penny-stock spam email you probably receive just about every day. This scam is straightforward: the perpetrator buys cheap stock in some obscure company and sends out millions of email messages. The email messages informs people who may or may not know better that the stock is guaranteed to soar and instructs them to buy now. Even a one percent response rate is enough activity to buoy the stock for the perpetrators, whi will quickly dump their holdings, leaving the fallen stock price for the suckers who bought into the scheme.

On the more reasonable side, stock brokers have their own personal interests in mind and are driven by the promise of commissions and fees. Even some journalists with close ties to financial industry have much to gain by promoting investments or insurance policies that they might not otherwise to help their friends. Investment companies have highly-paid teams of marketers to help write advice-giving articles for corporate rather than fiduciary interests.

So whose information do you trust?

3. Delay of information. Warren Buffett is one of the greatest investors of all time, there’s no doubt about that. It’s tempting to simply follow Buffett’s moves and decisions—albeit on a smaller scale—because he clearly knows what he is doing. The problem that I’ve found is that the public doesn’t hear about the details of his investing transactions until long after they’ve occurred. If you’re following Buffett’s moves three to six months after he’s made his decisions, then you’re missing the benefits that he has been enjoying. In fact, if Buffett were to buy into an investment and sell out of that same investment within a small time frame, you may even be the sucker buying Buffett’s sold shares.

One person does not make a crowd, even if it is Warren Buffett. Consider the collection of all high-level corporate executives, large university endowments, and all their investment managers. Again, you won’t hear of their investing decisions until well after these decisions have been made. It’s almost impossible to benefit from the wisdom of this particular crowd unless you’re able to follow their investments in real time.

Rather than looking for wisdom by following the perceived crowd, it may pay off to move against the mob. The contrary viewpoint may not always be right, so this particular technique of decision-making comes with its own risks.

Image credit: tboothhk

As June comes to a close, I’d like to thank visitors, readers, and commenters who enjoyed or contributed to Consumerism Commentary over the past month. I particularly like to mention the blogs and related websites that helped sustain Consumerism Commentary by linking here and providing paths for visitors to arrive. Here are the websites, not including RSS readers, social media websites, and search engines, that sent the most visitors to Consumerism Commentary over the past 30 days.

1. Get Rich Slowly +2
2. Lifehacker 0
3. MoneyBlogNetwork +3
4. AllFinancialMatters +4
5. No Credit Needed +7
6. Free Money Finance +4
7. The Simple Dollar 0
8. Five Cent Nickel new
9. My Open Wallet new
10. I Will Teach You To Be Rich -7

Here are the most popular articles from the month of June.

1. Getting Ripped Off for New Jersey Gasoline: Inaccurately Calibrated Pumps, Part 2 and Part 3
2. Carnival of Personal Finance #157: Third Anniversary Edition
3. McCain vs. Obama: Your Future Tax Bill
4. How Much the iPhone 3G Really Costs You
5. Passive Income: Real Estate? Blogging? I Don’t Think So
6. Quicken 2009 Beta Open to Volunteers for Testing
7. How I Could Find $10,000 Per Year if Necessary
8. Personal Income Statement, May 2008 (Net Income: $9,943)
9. Obama Proposes Second Economic Stimulus Package
10. Personal Balance Sheet, May 2008 ($158,793, +7.8%)

I’ve come across a number of interesting websites thanks to the Wall Street Journal podcast, the Tech News Briefing, including the E-Report with Tom Dziubek and and Paul Herrmann. (Note: Tom has interviewed me three times for the E-Report.) Most recently, the podcast informed me about RepairPal, a website that helps you find a local mechanic including reviews, get your car questions answered by other community members (or by experts for a fee), and keep track of your own car’s service records.

The tool I find most interesting is a survey of the actual costs paid to have maintenance performed on any make and model. For example, I wanted to compare my recent oil and filter change for a Honda Civic with the prices paid by those living near me. I paid $25 after rebate.

Here are the results. The prices paid for an oil change range from $22 to $40 in my area, with the low end of this range paid at independent shops and the high end paid at dealerships.

The search results also include links to location information, phone numbers, and reviews for local shops. If the site can attract enough people to write reviews, this will be a handy resource. As of now, the site is new, so the list of shops is use but not as good as word of mouth for recommendations.