Setting Goals
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Goal setting is crucial for just about everything in life. If you have a goal you can track, you are more likely to reach the goal (or at least make progress towards it).
J.D. over at GetRichSlowly loves goals.
But how do you know what a good goal is?
I learned what a proper goal consists of in college in a management class. Goals must be SMART. Smart stands for:
You can also make goals too wordy with all of the SMART criteria, so don’t write a novel.
Here are some examples of goals first in non-SMART wording, and then in a SMART variation. Let’s assume we are setting the goals from today, March 28, 2007.
1a. Get out of debt.
1b. Reduce credit card debt from $10,000 to $9,000 by June 1, 2007.
Analysis: The first version is very broad, and has no specifics at all. The SMART version is specific — reducing the debt by $1,000. It is measurable: dollars are measurable. You can track what your current debt is. Attainable and Realistic: This goal would stretch you. $500 per month for two months to reduce the debt. Attainable, not easy, but also not out of reach (such as eliminating all $10,000 in two months). Finally, it is timely: there is a specific date that the goal must be reached by.
Combine all of these together and you could track your progress towards June 1st, what the balance on the debt is, and what progress you have made.
2a. Get a job.
2b. Find employment as a financial analyst with a Fortune 500 company by August 1, 2007.
Again, the first goal is too broad and not specific at all. There is no timeline or criteria. The second goal is very specific — a specific job, at a specific type of company (you could go more into detail if this were your goal, say a Fortune 500 company in the banking industry). Whether or not it is attainable and realistic kind of depends on the person setting the goal. Do you currently work at a burger joint with no college education? Or do you have a finance degree from a four year university? It is also timely, with a specific date.
The best thing about goals is that you can break them down into smaller goals. Let’s use the two goals above.
Goal #1 could be broken down from reducing the debt by $1,000 in two months to a monthly, or weekly goal. Sub-goals would be reduce credit card debt by $500 by May 1, 2007, or reduce credit card debt by $125 each week. Tasks can be developed from these goals — setting up automatic payments to the credit card based on the goals.
Goal #2 is a little more difficult to break down, but here are some options. Sub-goals could be writing a resume, having resume critiqued by a career center, doing company research to target a company, etc.
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Selling Your Cell Phone: A Look at Your Options
I recently upgraded to a family share plan (hooray marriage) and we got two new LG VX8600s. Thus, I need to sell my Motorola E815. I have a few of the typical options — Craigslist, eBay, donating/recycling it…
But you have other options too! Specifically tailored sites to sell your cell. Let’s take a look — are they similarly priced?
I looked at the following sites:
Also to note, Cellphone Tradeins requires you to input:
Each site, of course, is a little different. For the most part they are the same. You input the make and model, occasionally the provider you used it through. Add the condition and what accessories you have, and you are presented with a price. I’ll test with the Motorola E815, my new phone the LG VX8600, and my terribly old phone the LG VX4500. We’ll see if it matters how old the phone is.
The results are below:
A mixed bag of results! I was surprised that two of the five sites did not list my newest phone, the LG VX8600.
As you can see, the oldest phone did not have much variation in the price you could receive. One site didn’t even list it as an option — most likely from its age.
The E815 did not have a ton of variation, except for CellForCash. $11? Are they serious? That’s $1 more than the price I would receive for the VX4500 from CashMyPhone. And they are offering $48 for a brand new $200 cell phone? No thanks.
Judging from this small test, CellForCash looks like an absolute rip off. The cash you would receive for your cell there is 1/3 or 1/4 of what you could get elsewhere. SimplySellular may take your phone for nearly nothing if it is really old. Your mileage may differ.
Overall, the winners look like Cellphone Tradeins and CashMyPhone. CashMyPhone had an edge in the amount of money I would receive, but remember this is a small test of three phones. SellYourCell and SimplySellular may be decent options depending on the phone you are selling.
I also checked eBay for E815 prices and saw a few phones with bids at $46, $56, $59, $37.50 all with 12+ hours of bidding left. That would be another option if you take eBay (and PayPal) fees into consideration.
Conclusion:
It looks like I’ll be selling my two older phones to CashMyPhone. The only price I pay is shipping. 30 days after they receive my phones, I will get a check in the mail. I might make a tad bit more money on eBay, but there is also the risk I would make less. With CashMyPhone I know the exact amount I should be getting after shipping.
Updated: I ended up using Cash My Phone for a combined total of $55. Shipping cost me something like $3. My phones have been received and I should get my check in about 30 days.
Updates!: One, two, three, and four. Did I ever get my cash? Read on and find out!
Where to Sell Your Extra Gift Cards
Update: This post was selected as an Editor’s pick for the Carnival of Personal Finance #92. Welcome Carnival folks! Stick around, view the rest of the blog, leave a comment…
So it’s your birthday and your great Aunt Ester gave you such a kind gift: a gift card to your least favorite store. [Pottery Barn Kids] (enter your own store in) just isn’t your thing. You appreciate the thought, but…
Or, perhaps you’ve got a sudden financial crisis, change of heart, whatever it may be… you need the cash on that card and not whatever it can buy you. Why not try selling it online?
Examples of “Sell Your Gift Card” Services:
Certificate Swap
eBay.
Which service is best?
Let’s use the examples of a $25, $50, $100, and $500 gift card (hey, who knows, maybe your friends chipped in together to get you the $500). Let’s also assume you do not list for the maximum amount, as you are trying to get a faster sale. We’ll list at 25% off.
I also decided not to include PlasticJungle because it looks really new, almost like a template, and currently the site is not monetized… not sure how it would survive over a long period of time.
Here’s a chart for how it works out. All the math is below.
If we do a little bit more math, we can figure out where the point of switching from Card Avenue to SwapAGift is. (3.99 - 0.50)/.0395 = $88.35. If you believe your gift card is going to sell for more than $88.35, switch to SwapAGift.
Result: Card Avenue is your choice below $88.35, SwapAGift is if it is above $88.35.
The Catch: Card Avenue lists your card in an auction format. There is no guarantee your card will sell for more than $88.35, and you cannot set a reserve price. The chart and spreadsheet above are going off of the final sale price, assuming they are all the same. If you think your gift card might fall into the ‘grey area’ where it may or may not sell (if auctioned) above that amount, you might try listing it on SwapAGift at a guaranteed higher price (like $90). If it sells, you guarantee you are still getting the best deal, plus you got a small % more money for your card.
Also, there are other fees to consider such as PayPal, and the cost of sending the gift card to your buyer (envelope + 39 cent stamp). However, if you consider PayPal and these factors into every buy/sell situation, the results should be the same. (I haven’t done that math, however. Feel free to prove me wrong.)
A final factor to consider is the amount of traffic each site gets, or its popularity. It may be less expensive to list on one site, but you may get a faster sale from another.
Other Options: If you don’t want to risk your card not selling for what you’d like it to, or you don’t want to pay a fee you could try:
The math follows.
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