MICROSOFT OFFICE FOR $9.95: Some of you may already be aware of this, but it’s possible for those with the right employers to get Microsoft Office for only $9.95. This is done via the Microsoft Home Use Program, wherein employees of companies that use Microsoft Office can get a version for their home computer on the cheap. To find out if you’re eligible, just enter your work email on the page linked above.
HOW MUCH WILL SAVING 1% MORE GET YOU?: A nice interactive graphic from the NYT on how much an additional 1% of savings adds up to over the years. (H/T: Barry Ritholtz)
$500 VISA GIFT CARDS TO RETURN AT OFFICE DEPOT: Chase Ink fans, get ready: the scuttlebutt is that $500 gift cards are returning to Office Depot. Though there is some talk on Flyertalk that they’ll only accept cash. This could turn out to be a YMMV situation, as with certain retailers who let you buy gift cards with gift cards. We’ll see…
RAPID TRAVEL CHAI’S APP-O-RAMA: It’s often informative to read the results of somebody’s app-o-rama, especially if they’re applying for more cards than you’ve ever applied for at once. I therefore enjoyed seeing how Rapid Travel Chai did: 5 credit cards approved, 1 pending, 2 denied. The two denials were from Barclays, and the lesson:
In line with many recent reports, Barclays has gotten very tight and reconsideration would not budge. They were most concerned about overall number of recent accounts and want me to have a longer track record with existing Barclays accounts. Similar happened with my wife a month earlier for the Arrival even though she has only ever had one Barclays card, the US Airways, and that for a year. So I think it may be best early on to go for one big Barclays score like the 4 I got last Decemberand then let them cool for a year or more.
MORE ON MONEY AND HAPPINESS: The Economist has a review of Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending. In a nutshell:
This slim volume is packed with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery winners get the most “happiness bang for your buck”. It seems most people would be better off if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with friends and family and less of it watching television (something the average American spends a whopping two months a year doing, and is hardly jollier for it). Buying gifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things for oneself, and luxuries are most enjoyable when they are consumed sparingly. This is apparently the reason McDonald’s restricts the availability of its popular McRib—a marketing gimmick that has turned the pork sandwich into an object of obsession.
I’ll second the television suggestion–I (mostly) gave it up a few years ago and I don’t miss it one bit. I say “mostly” because I’ll still watch live sporting events or catch up on TV shows via Netflix, but I’ve cut out aimless channel-surfing entirely.
I will never understand the McRib obsession, though. Those things–and I say this as somebody who actually likes McDonald’s hamburgers–are appalling.
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