Happy Birthday America! Here’s some of what I’ve been reading over the long weekend:

The Death of the American Dream I
A good long-ish editorial from the The American Interest magazine about the “American Dream”. The American Dream used to be owning your own family farm. “In 1900, 41 percent of Americans worked on farms. Today fewer than 2 percent do.” The updated Dream became lifetime employment (plus a pension of lifetime income) plus owning a home through a 30-year (half a lifetime) mortgage. There is no longer lifetime employment these days, and perhaps the government-subsidized 30-year mortgage is up next. Also see Part II.

$1 Billion That Nobody Wants
An NPR investigative article about how the US government keeps making billions of dollar coins, even though most people prefer paper bills. I suppose this answers why you can buy coins from the US mint with a credit card, enabling people to rack up credit card rewards, and also a good way to meet minimum spend requirements for the big bonus cards. I think the two options should be to either stop making paper bills, or stop spending so much money pushing dollar coins on us. Until then, since the coins exist already, we are essentially getting paid by the government to distribute them.

Fidelity’s Experience Proves Bigger Doesn’t Mean Better
Morningstar article outlines reasons why Fidelity is having some issues with their actively managed funds. One issue is manager turnover; Their average manager tenure is 3.2 years, ranked 24th out of the 25 largest firms. They also have too many funds and not enough talent for all those positions. For example, Fidelity has 17 large-growth funds geared toward retail investors alone. As they earn a big chunk of profits from retirement plans, they will be much less likely to allow unconventional managers who take risks for big returns. Also see my review of Fidelity’s Portfolio Advisory Service product.

United and Continental Merger Updates
If you haven’t heard, United and Continental are merging, and you can link your accounts and transfer miles between the two frequent flier programs at your convenience. Combine your two balances to make one award flight, for example. I’m a United Elite and I heart my Economy Plus seats. Thanks reader Michael for the tip.

The Continental OnePass Plus credit card is still offering 30,000 miles + $50, and will still work after the merger.

Today, I find myself staring at a bunch of links that are mildly interesting, but nothing that inspires much additional research or spewing of opinion. Maybe I’m just tired and cranky. In any case, I think they are worthy of sharing.

Tiny Transformer Apartment
A fellow in Hong Kong has created an apartment with sliding walls that transforms what is basically one big room into many – a bathroom, kitchen, living room, or a bedroom simply appears with a bit of pushing. Quite cool in only 344 sq. ft. It’s easiest to watch the video to really understand it.

Lendle, eBookFling, BookLending
Apparently you can lend eBooks on Amazon Kindle now, but it’s not really built for easy sharing. If a publisher allows their eBooks to be sharable, you can lend out each book only once to another user for 14 days. If enough Kindle users sign up with a regular stream of books, it might actually be useful.

Mortgage Brokers Argue Over No-Doc Stated Income Loan For Stripper
Read the thread of emails from the bottom up. An exotic dancer in North Carolina applies for a stated income loan (no income or bank statements) based on an income of $140,000 a year. An excellent example of the keen underwriting skills shown across our great land in 2007.

Calendar of deals: What’s on sale when
Consumer Reports provides a general guide to what items tend to go on sale at the same time each year. For May, we’re looking at athletic apparel, camping gear, and lawn mowers.

Law Students Lose the Grant Game as Schools Win
The NY Times reports that some law schools are awarding more merit scholarships in order to attract better students. The catch is that the scholarships require you to be on the top third of the class, which if you give enough scholarships means some are guaranteed to promptly lose those scholarships and get hit with the full bill. Lesson to prospective law students: read the fine print.

Kind of hidden at the bottom of my last post was that discovery that there are new ways to join Pentagon Federal Credit Union, known commonly as PenFed. There are several reasons to join this credit union, including at-times competitive certificate of deposit (CD) rates, a credit card that gives you 5% cash back on gas, and low interest rates on mortgages and auto loans. (Their 5/5 ARM mortgage is relatively unique.)

In general, membership is open to the military, US government employees, or the family or household of existing members. Previously, the most open way to join was with by paying $20 to join the National Military Family Association. (I didn’t realize this was tax-deductible.)

However, recently two new ways have popped up on their eligibility page. First, you can become eligible by joining the Voices for America’s Troops group for a $15 one-time fee (not tax-deductible). Second, you can join by being a Red Cross blood donor (blood or money). I’ve donated both blood and money to the Red Cross, and many of you probably have as well so it may be a good time to join. You’ll need to keep $5 in a share account. Maybe somebody new can apply and tell me how they verify this, but I bet they are using the honor system. Thanks to reader Paul for the tip.

American Red Cross Employees and Volunteers. A volunteer is defined as anyone who provides wealth, wisdom, or work. Wealth can include a blood donation or a financial donation.

I’ve finally caught up to 2009 and created a Facebook Page for MyMoneyBlog.com, with a little nudge from reader Amy. With this page, my hope is to be able to share links and other quick news that might not make it into a blog post, as well as interact with readers. Additionally, if you are a regular Facebook user and “Like” the page you’ll get all these things plus new post updates fed into your regular news feed.

To promote awareness for this bribe you into checking it out, I have set up a quick giveaway for a $15 eBay gift card that I bought from Groupon yesterday. Just visit the page and look on the left for the “Sweepstakes” tab. All you need is your e-mail. I am using the third-party app Wildfire to manage this giveaway, so you’ll need to approve a Facebook app. Contest ends Sunday night 4/3 at midnight Pacific.

You don’t need to “Like” the page to enter, but it would definitely provide me a nice ego boost. 😉

(As I publish this post, I see that California and Hawaii are on a tsunami watch after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan. Goodness.)

Earlier this week, my brother-in-law sent me a link to a post on the Art of Manliness blog on How to Make a Bug Out Bag: Your 72-Hour Emergency Evacuation Survival Kit by a wilderness survival instructor. He knows that I have a fascination with survival gadgets in case of disaster or “revolution”.

From what I’ve read about governmental emergency response, in a real mass disaster, average citizens should not expect assistance for at least 72 hours if not a week. Chances are that it will be chaos and only the seriously ill will be attended to. You’ll be on your own for a while, so you should be prepared.

Ever since reading the book Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life, I have been collecting bits and pieces of emergency gear. I went on a flashlight binge, buying a solar-powered flashlight, LED headlamps, big D-cell maglites, tons of cheap LED flashlights, and stocking up on batteries. I bought a couple big pump-style water filters, and small hiker-style water filters. I have other basics like a first-aid kit, and the standard case of water bottles on rotation.

But as a highly analytical person, I think I really just like spending hours and hours reading reviews and weighing the pros and cons of different brands of devices. As a result, I don’t actually have a fully equipped “bug-out bag“, and all my stuff is definitely not in a backpack ready to grab-and-go. Since the pursuit of perfection is often the enemy of good-enough, yesterday I went out and spent $100 on this pre-packaged Emergency Kit.

Yes, I already have a lot of the stuff inside already and yes, I probably could have made something better myself for cheaper, but I feel better already. (After I get the bag, I’ll see if I really can make something better for cheaper.)

Leonardo da Vinci isn’t usually quoted when it comes to personal finance; I don’t think he really cared for the topic very much. However, I’ve been doing some reading about him and I really enjoyed these quotes attributed to him and wanted to remember them:

• “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
• “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
• “It’s easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”
• “He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.”

I’m going on vacation for the next 3 weeks. I’ve got some great guest posts lined up, most of them are very long and in-depth. I think you’ll like them. The response was great, and I have even more great guest content for when I get back. There will also be some posts of my own that I’ve written ahead of time. Comment moderation and e-mail replies will be even slower than usual, so thanks in advance for your patience.

Even though purely financially this year has been one of the best, other than that it has been the worst. I’d happy trade the two. I’m looking forward to the break, and hope to come back with renewed energy and focus.

I received a notice about a class action settlement for AT&T Wireless Customers after March 1, 1999. This is the AT&T Wireless was that was merged out of existence in 2004, before it became Cingular Wireless and then “Wireless from AT&T”. To receive benefits, Class Members must submit a Claim Form (available at www.awssettlement.com or 1-866-249-8109) by February 13, 2011. Details:

Subject to Court approval, settlements were reached of class action lawsuits against AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. (“AWS”) regarding challenges to: (1) charges for mMode Data Service (“mMode”) and ENH Discount International Dial (“EDID”), if they were unauthorized or not understood; (2) charges for cellular telephone calls during a billing period other than the one in which the calls were made (“Out-of-Cycle Billing”), if not understood; and (3) imposition of Universal Connectivity Charges (“UCC”), if not understood (collectively, “Settled Claims”).

You may be a class member if you:

* live in the U.S. or its territories, were an AWS subscriber after December 20, 2001, and were billed and paid, but not refunded in full, for mMode or EDID;
* live in California, initiated AWS service under a “One Rate-type” plan after March 1, 1999, and were charged for calls during a billing period other than the one in which the calls were made; or
* live in the U.S. or its territories, were an AWS subscriber after March 1, 1999, and paid, but were not refunded or credited, for UCC charges.

You may be a member of multiple classes.

If the Settlements are approved, Class Members may receive:

* mMode: $8 check
* EDID: $10 check
* Out of Cycle Billing: $8 check or 250 minute AT&T Phone Card
* UCC: $7 check.