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FreedomPop friends, the Citibank-Best Buy connection, and the Ventra Card launch

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ANYBODY NEED A FREEDOMPOP FRIEND?: (UPDATE: All ten of my freedom friend slots are taken!)  I just got my hotspot device from FreedomPop, the free wireless internet company. You get 500 MB of data free each month, plus you can get an additional 500MB per month free by connecting with friends (50 MB / friend, maximum of 10 friends).

Since I don’t know anybody else who has one of these things, anybody reading this is welcome to be my “friend.” If you’re a FreedomPop customer and want an extra 50MB per mo, leave a comment below (to avoid spam, please don’t put your email in the comment itself–your address shows up in my comment moderation screen) or send me an email if you want to connect.

SHUTTERFLY DELUGE CONTINUES: Following up on last week’s item, here’s one more free Shutterfly photo book offer, courtesy of Points, Miles and Martinis.

$30 OFF a $75 ORDER AT MAGGIANO’S: Courtesy of Slickdeals, here’s a coupon. It’s focus group tested authentic Italian-style cooking!

HELLO, CITIBANK!: Citibank has completed its takeover of the Best Buy credit card portfolio. As an enthusiastic cardholder (who else gives 6% on anything?), I’m hoping for some sweet marketing promotions. The combination of Citi’s marketing department plus Best Buy’s marketing department has great potential, though frankly I’ll be surprised if they surpass the generosity shown to cardholders this year.

Speaking of Citi, I called and asked to cancel my American Airlines card. They offered to waive the annual fee in exchange for just five purchases, so I took the offer since I’ve got a pretty good credit line on that card.

NEW TOOL FOR CHICAGO COMMUTERS, POSSIBLY SOME OF MY READERS: Apparently Chicago commuters have a new way to pay their fares: the Ventra card, which was launched yesterday. The Ventra card can also be used as a debit card–you can use it to pay bills or cash it out at an ATM. There’s a maximum of $100 per load and $300 at any one time, according to this.

The FAQ says this:

Your Ventra Card has two accounts – a Transit Account and a Prepaid Debit Account. The Transit Account enables you to add passes and transit value so you can ride on CTA and Pace. The Prepaid Debit Account enables you to use your Ventra Card anywhere Debit MasterCard® is accepted.

The FAQ also says you can load the transit account with a credit card. Can you load the debit account with a credit card? I have no idea, just throwing this one out there in case anybody’s in Chicago.

BASKETBALL HACK: Did you know you’re more likely to make a free throw if you shoot it underhanded? It’s all about the physics. The downside is that you look like a dork, but hey: no pain, no gain.

Financial reasons for having children while you’re still young

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You all are probably familiar with the financial arguments in favor of waiting to have children: save money, establish your careers, etc. Yet there are financial reasons for not waiting as well.

I write this as somebody pushing 40 who had his first kid at age 33 and who currently has #4 on the way. I didn’t get started early on account of the fact that I didn’t get married until I was in my 30s.

But there may be some of you out there who are in a position to get going on starting a family but have not yet done so. If you do intend to have kids at some point, I recommend you don’t wait too long.

Why? First of all, it’s cheaper to reproduce when you’re younger. 95% of women who start trying to conceive at age 25 will eventually have a child, but only 80-85% of those who start at age 35 will. The longer you wait, the more likely you are to try something like in vitro fertilization, which is really, really, expensive. How expensive? Try this:

The average IVF cost is $12,000, but it can be as much as $15,000. It may be as low as $10,000, but it’s rarely lower than that. These prices are for one cycle of IVF.

And if you go this route there’s a good chance you’ll need more than one cycle. Maybe your health insurance will cover this… or maybe it won’t. Not all plans do.

You may get to a point where you decide to adopt a baby, but that is very expensive as well: try $10-$30,000 per baby.

And let’s not forget that both you and the baby are less likely to have expensive pregnancy complications when you’re younger. This isn’t just about the ladies, either: men, you should realize that every year you wait adds an additional 2 mutations to your child’s genome. Which isn’t huge given that there are billions of nucleotides, but still.

You may think that it would help your career to wait to have kids, but keep in mind that you have more energy when you’re young. Taking care of a baby is a brutal contest of endurance, and dealing with four wake-ups per night and a full-time job is easier when you’re 25 than when you’re 40.

And if you decide to drop out of the workforce for a few years to take care of your kids, it’s easier to re-enter the workforce or start a new career at age 30 than at age 45.

Not only that, but I have to wonder if having kids earlier can make retirement easier as well. On the one hand, it’s certainly easier to build wealth before you have kids. But think about college: if you apply for financial aid, you will be expected to contribute up to 5% of your assets per year. If you had your kids young and haven’t built up too many assets, you’ll get more financial aid–and you’ll have more time to build up your retirement nest egg. In fact, your kids could be done with college just as you’re in your peak earnings years:

Whereas if you have your kids later, you contribute more of your wealth to college expenses and your income is likely to be lower when you’re done. There’s less time to rebound from the financial hit and less ability to save.

Obviously, everybody’s situation is different and as with all things kid-related Your Mileage May Vary. All I’m saying is that waiting doesn’t necessarily make things easier and can actually make things more difficult, so please consider all the pros and cons. There’s never a perfect time to have kids.

Free Kindles, credit score dating, and a unique hotel

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FREE $100, FREE KINDLE: First Tennessee Bank is offering $100 to anybody who opens a new Express Checking account and uses direct deposit. Meanwhile, KeyBank will give you a free Kindle Fire HD when you open one of their checking accounts.

HIGC FLAMEOUT: Last week, we mentioned that Million Mile Secrets had publicized the fact that you could use the Home Improvement Gift Card to load your Bluebird. That deal died around 24 hours later. It got shut down more quickly than I would have guessed, but that it got shut down is not surprising at all, as very lucrative deals with lots of publicity tend not to last too long.

Anyway, if you’ve got some time to kill the whole episode generated 100 pages in just a couple of days on Flyertalk.

TALL, DARK, AND 800: There was a New York Times article a while back with a bunch of anecdotes about people using credit criteria to screen potential mates. Now, the website FreeCreditScore.com has conducted a more extensive survey of 1,000 adults.

The results? “About 30% of women and 20% of men say they won’t marry a person with a low credit score.” The article goes on to say:

Most respondents also said money management skills are just as important as looks when deciding whether someone is worth pursuing.

This is especially true for women, with nearly all female respondents ranking financial responsibility and financial compatibility as more important or just as important as career ambition, physical attraction and sex and intimacy, the survey found.

As with any survey, you have to take the results with a grain of salt since what people say and what people do are two different things. And sadly, the survey did not ask about the attractiveness of people who obsessively chase after credit card deals.

There’s probably something to the findings though, as the ability to control resources (financial, political, or otherwise) is a consideration in marriage decisions throughout all cultures and times. Credit scores are just a measure of financial resources in this particular place and time. (H/T: Bargaineering)

WHAT’S IN YOUR WALLET LIBRARY?: Kent Thune, who blogs over at The Financial Philosopher, has some interesting thoughts on books over at The Big Picture:

From time to time people ask me to give them recommendations on good finance books. When I respond, I either get blank stares or laughs…

What’s so funny about the Tao Te Ching, Thoreau’s Walden, or Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling On Happiness?

Were they expecting something like Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace, Kiyosaki’s Poor Dad / Rich Dad or Curtis Faith’s Way of the Turtle? While these are good books (at least measured by sales), I’m not sure it’s responsible to blindly send people on their way to read how someone else got rich. Did the authors of these finance books get rich as a result of reading a book about getting rich? Or did they find success by finding their own pathway to it?

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. ~ Basho

As you may have already guessed, my reasoning for recommending non-financial books for financial guidance is three-tiered:

  1. The world doesn’t need more lists of “best financial books.” There are too many as it is now.
  2. Most people that ask for financial book recommendations don’t want to read a financial book; they want aget-rich-quick book.
  3. I believe the greatest need in the Business/Finance section of book stores is the Books to Read Before You Read the Finance Book section. Outside of Wall Street, the purpose of money is not to make more money; it is to serve a non-financial purpose. Therefore it is philosophy that guides finance: Life is not about making money; money is about making a life.

I WANT TO STAY IN THIS HOTEL: For those of you looking for new hotel experiences, the Spitbank Fort may be worth looking into. The British built the naval installation one mile off the coast of Portsmouth in 1867, but it is now a luxury hotel. Here’s an aerial view:

Here’s the Victory Bar, which looks like a great place to imbibe:

And let’s not forget the Nelson Suite:

There are more pictures here. Rooms start at $565 per person, or you can rent the whole thing out (sleeps 18!) for only $7,690 per night.

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Saverocity is Journalistic in Nature, please obtain Professional Representation prior to attempting anything discussed herein. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.