Do you have an Capital One 360 savings account with unused referrals? I usually have lots of $25 bonus links available, but have been falling behind again. The first 25 people who comment below tonight and leave a working contact e-mail (real name not required, e-mail will not be shared publicly) will get one filled by me for free, which is $10 for you. (All done!)

As a bonus to my always-helpful commenters, if you’ve also left a comment with the same e-mail address ever on any post before, you’ll get an additional referral filled for free.

Due to comment moderation, your comment may not show up right away. One referral per person. Look for a message from me to your e-mail address with further instructions later on. This usually goes fast, so thanks for helping me out!

There seems to be a lot of noise about previously struggling financial companies who were begging for bailouts but now are paying out billions of dollars in bonuses to employees.

I’m not trying to be political here at all, just thinking out loud. First, I don’t see why any private company should be allowed to be “too big to fail”. Otherwise, the whole point of bailing out these companies was… to bail them out and have them recover to be successful once again. The question is, why didn’t the government borrow a credit card tactic and charge them a nice 5% “balance transfer fee” and 35% APR since they were a “high-risk” borrower? You know, the same terms they’ve been giving to consumers forever, even forgetting things like payday loans. Then taxpayers would have earned a nice interest rate on their lent money, the public wouldn’t feel so angry about these bonuses, and the banks can repay quickly and move on with a better public image.

From this Forbes article, it appears that many of the TARP recipients got a deal for about 5% interest rate for the first 5 years. Banks like JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley have already paid back their money.

There is a new web browser plugin called WebofTrust which is a “free Internet security addon for your browser. It will keep you safe from online scams, identity theft, spyware, spam, viruses and unreliable shopping sites. WOT warns you before you interact with a risky website.”

Unfortunately, it seems that my domain somehow made it on a list of sites that promote a get-rich-quick scheme by buying links on Google Adwords. The original page seems to be here, where I am associated with some guy named Scott Hunter. What makes it worse is that a user on the MyWOT Forums is was* telling people to blindly rate all of these listed sites negatively without even actually verifying the content. As any regular reader will know, I have never posted anything to do with any of these Adwords schemes.

As a result, my site has been labeled as a scam site! Users visiting my site will see a pop-up indicating I participate in “phishing or other scams”, and that my site is dangerous.

*Update: It appears I was confused with my-moneyblog.com (note the dash), which is indeed a spammy site and is pretending to be me on some level. The original WoT forum member has edited their post, and the negative reviews have been removed. If you use this plugin, please feel free to rate my site honestly.

A Second Home, a Starter Budget – NY Times
An article about a young couple who rent in Brooklyn but instead bought their first house in the Catskills – a two-bedroom, one-bath, 700sf fixer-upper for $95,000. Check out the picture gallery, I like their sense of interior design using Craigslist finds.

Rental Rates – InvestorLoft
Another resource for tracking rental rates, with a focus on single family homes and condos. Not sure of where they get their data, though. Compare with Rent-o-meter, which I think pulls from Craigslist.

News from 1930
This site reads the Wall Street Journal for each corresponding day in 1930, and offers a sometimes eerie look into the similarities and differences between today and then. (The Great Depression is said to have started with the crash of 1929.) Just like now, there is a lot of uncertainty about the future, and there is always the headline “Leading economists say [insert wild guess here]…”

Textbook Publisher to Rent to College Students
What’s not clear is how much cheaper it is than simply buying new and selling back later. I never understood how a book on a subject like Calculus could have a “new” edition every two years. There should be a law requiring at least 20% new material or something on new editions.

More good stuff from other personal finance blogs:

• 10 Random IRS Observations at The Tax Lawyer’s Blog
• Buying and Storing Meat in Bulk at Lazy Man and Money
• 29 Reasons Why Being A Part Time Entrepenuer Sucks by The Happy Rock
• How to Brew Your Own Beer by Jeremy of Generation X Finance
• My Mortgage Refinancing Journey by Steve at Personal Finance Start-up
• The Infomercial Copycat Method of Debt Reduction by Simon at Realm of Prosperity
• Spend Less Menu Week 3 at Money Funk

The Accidental Slumlord
A writer whose lives in Massachusetts buys a two-unit rental property in Pocatello, Idaho for $62,750 during the housing boom. Read what happens when he actually visits his house and deals with his tenants.

OptionsHouse Brokerage – $3.95 Stock Trades
Another new discount online brokerage with cheap trades, but actually won #1 in Trade Experience in recent Barron’s Broker Survey, beating out E-Trade. Offers flat-rate pricing at $3.95 for stock trades regardless of number of shares, and $9.95 flat for options (no per-contract fee). $1,000 to open, $100 balance needed to trade. Anyone try them?

New research sheds light on the habits of successful savers
Includes a lot of expected characteristics, but worth a skim to see how you compare.

AMC Theatres A.M. Cinema
“A.M.Cinema, a new program providing early-morning guests the opportunity to see first-run movies at the best ticket price of the day. The program invites moviegoers to visit their local AMC theatre before noon Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays to enjoy ticket prices of $4, $5 or $6 depending on the theatre and market.”

F*** my job, Selling Everything!
Found in the Best of Craigslist section. Have you ever had the urge to simply sell everything you own, cash out your investments, quit your job, and just travel the world until the money runs out? This guy did.

Credit Bailout: Issuers Slashing Card Balances
People are haggling directly with credit card companies to lower their amount owed. However, the articles neglects to go into detail about the impact on credit scores. I suspect that there will still be significant damage to your credit if you “settle” in this way.

Tuesday 10: Good stuff from other personal finance blogs

• How much do people spend on clothes by Jim at FreeBy50
• My IRA asset allocation at GreenPandaTreehouse
• Things You Own End Up Owning You by David at MyTwoDollars
• On Spending Consciously by Patrick at Cash Money Life
• Pay attention to your money by Single Ma at Fabulous Financials
• Retired at 31: An Early Retirement Story by FrugalTrader at Million Dollar Journey
• Tax Deductible Mortgages in Canada by Mr. Cheap at FourPillars
• Mid Year Financial Checkup by Madison at MyDollarPlan
• Fun Fund Sell-o-Meter by J at BudgetsAreSexy

Here are some neat links from readers and interweb wanderings. I want to expand on them later as well.

Petrofix: Hedge and cap gas prices
A website that will let you control your cost of gasoline in the near future – for a price. If gas prices rise, they pay you the difference. If they fall, you are out the hedge price. The risk? Well, first I haven’t checked out the prices. Also you pay now, but who knows if the company will be around to fulfill their promises in the future. I’d rather hedge against higher gas by buying an oil ETF or use real options with better liquidity. (Disclosure: I did buy some OIL in my fun portfolio at end of 2008.)

The Great Commodities Debate with Larry Swedroe and Rick Ferri
A long multi-part series on HardAssetsInvestor about the role of commodities within a portfolio. Should you add them to your asset allocation? Swedroe and Ferri flesh out their arguments in a moderated battle, and I still don’t know who wins. However, I am glad I didn’t buy commodities the last two years or so when they were in vogue.

Jeremy Grantham / GMO 7-Year Asset Class Forecasts
Each month, Jeremy Grantham and GMO publishes on the web its predictions of the future return for various asset styles over the next seven years. You must register for free on his site to download them. Grantham has gotten increased publicity recently due to how accurate his previous predictions have been. You can read his 2009 Q1 newsletter “The Last Hurrah and Seven Lean Years” without registration. In the end, he’s just another guy with an opinion, but at least he is forthright about it.

Breakdown: The Credit CARD Act of 2009
Cap of StopBuyingCrap has a nice concise list of the changes to credit card laws coming in February 2010, in case you didn’t feel like reading the entire thing. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. I think that rumors of annual fees or eliminating grace periods for people who don’t carry balances are just scare tactics by credit card lobbyists. They’ll continue to make money from merchant transaction fees, as always.

Google PowerMeter
An online tool that monitors your home’s power usage in real time. Currently only available in very limited areas where people have the right “smart meters” already installed. Sounds even cooler than my Kill-a-Watt energy meter.

Do you have an Capital One 360 savings account with unused referrals? I usually have lots of $25 bonus links available, but have been falling behind again. The first 25* people who comment below tonight and leave a working contact e-mail (real name not required, e-mail will not be shared publicly) will get one filled by me for free, which is $10 for you. Gone in 15 minutes, wow! Will do it again later.

Due to comment moderation, your comment may not show up right away. One referral per person. You cannot have had a “freebie” before. Look for a message from me to your e-mail address with further instructions later on.

Kind of short notice, but as I mentioned before in my Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha book review, Berkshire Hathaway is now selling tickets to their 2009 annual meeting directly on eBay. You get two tickets for only $5 in Buy It Now format, including free shipping.

All buyers receive two (2) Berkshire Hathaway 2009 Annual Shareholder Meeting Tickets and Visitor’s Guide. Please provide a mailing address when you checkout.

These tickets are being offered directly by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in response to others who are selling tickets on Ebay.

The meeting is on Saturday, May 2nd at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska. There are some additional activities on Friday and Sunday as well. If you are a BRK shareholder, you should have gotten your 2009 annual report in March, which had a postcard to mail back in order to get tickets. Hmm… maybe I’ll get to see Warren Buffett next year.

The overall theme of this links roundup is dealing with unexpected events and the resulting expenses. If it can go wrong, it probably will, and most likely at an inconvenient time. Here are some fellow bloggers who have also had a not-so-great time recently.

• Single Guy made an offer on some investment property, but got outbid.
• Grace was hit with an insurance hike due to making claim for a fire in her garage.
• PaidTwice is having problems with her check engine light as well. I’m nearly over 100k miles too. How easy is it really to replace your own O2 sensor? Popular Mechanics makes it look easy.
• Saver In The City shares about her job history and salary negotiating history.
• Patrick is now prepared to lose his wallet. Hmm… that sounds wrong.
• Chief Family Officer is re-committing to reducing her family’s spending on food.
• The Dividend Guy deals with Pfizer’s dividend cut. Even investing based on dividends has been rough recently, with Wells Fargo and GE cutting their dividends as well.
• Tricia tried to take a day off from thinking about money, but found it harder than she thought.
• Glblguy describes the joys of home ownership. Read: broken fridge and overflowing septic tank. Fun.
• Ben’s friend managed to get in an argument about how much to flush the toilet. I’m sure they’ll look back on this one day and laugh. (I hope so.)

Maybe I was just hungry this week, but a lot of my financially related links happened to be about food!

CNN reporter lives on food stamps for a month
What’s it like to eat with a food budget of $176 a month? Some frugal families may find that plenty for one person, others can’t even imagine it. What about nutrition? Too many carbs, too few fruits and vegetables. Reminds me of this breakdown of foods by how much 200 calories costs.

Who moved my Parmigiano?
Banks in Italy are buying and storing Parmigiano Reggiano as a hedge against “the expected future devaluation of other assets and defaults in their portfolio.” This wouldn’t work in my house… because I’d eat my hedge.

How Much Water Does Pasta Really Need?
It is a surely the sign of the times when the NY Times is asking if we really need the entire recommended 4-6 quarts of water to properly boil a pound of pasta. But I was interested anyways, since I’ve been boiling pasta in a lot less water for years, with the primary reason being to save time with my slow stove.

Think Global. Drink Local.
A website supporting the drinking of tap water instead of bottled water. I’ve only recently learned about health concerns from the BPA found in many plastic water bottles.

Guide to Buying TIPS on the Secondary Market
The Finance Buff has a guide on buying individual inflation-protection bonds on the secondary market. It’s kind of like buying individual stocks as you can make market or limit orders, but with different variables like yield-to-maturity. For more advanced investors.

Card Issuers: How Can We Make You Go Away?
For specifically targeted customers, credit card companies are offering $300 or 10% of your balance if you pay your debt off and close your account. Dang, where’s my offer Citibank?

2008 Berkshire Hathaway Letter to Shareholders
Buffett’s annual letter to BRK shareholders, which is always a good read. Pal Carol Loomis of Fortune (editor of the letter) has a summary.

There are many forms of capital. Besides the usual definition of business capital (money), there is physical capital (a car, house, or other useful tool), human capital (your skills and education), and also social capital. According to Wikipedia, this describes the value held within our relationships with other individuals and larger social networks.

One of the books I am currently reading is Simple Prosperity by David Wann (co-author of Affluenza). Inside, there is a nice quote about social capital:

It is inevitable that our society will once again give higher priority to belonging and lower priority to belongings.

Look at the results of a study by the National Science Foundation, which found that one-fourth of all Americans say that they have no one that they can discuss personal problems with. Not one person. This number has doubled since 1985. One in 32 people is either in prison or on parole. If our ultimate goal is to be happy and fulfilled, then this can’t be a good trend.

Sociologist Robert Putnam believes the following are indicators of social capital:

• How many of your neighbor’s first names do you know?
• How often do you attend parades or festivals?
• Do you volunteer at your kid’s school? Or help out senior citizens?
• Do you trust your local police?
• Do you know who your U.S. senators are?
• Do you attend religious services? Or go to the theater?
• Do you sign petitions? Or attend neighborhood meetings?
• Do you think the people running your community care about you?
• Can you make a difference?
• How often do you visit with friends or family?

It has been argued that growing social capital can keep you healthy, make schools more productive, reduce crime, and even raise home prices in a neighborhood. Perhaps the best thing about social capital is that “the more you spend, the more you have”.