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Monday Night Finance- Volume 55

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Monday, 12 July 2021 / Published in Monday Night Finance

Monday Night Finance- Volume 55

Financial Lessons From Bobby Bonilla Day And Did The Mets Get The Better Deal?

On July 1st, a baseball player named Bobby Bonilla received a check for $1.2 million dollars from the New York Mets. While this is not newsworthy in and of itself, you might be interested in learning that Bobby Bonilla hasn’t played for the Mets since 1999. What’s even more surprising is that Bobby Bonilla will continue receiving $1.2 million dollar checks on July 1st until 2035 (for *not* playing baseball). If this sounds shocking, it is, but only because Bonilla a lump sum payment he was owed into an annuity. This article from Financial Freedom Countdown explains the contract and discusses who got the better deal.

In 2000, Bobby and the management realized that they were not a great match. The Mets wanted to get substitute Bobby Bonilla. But they still owed him $5.9M on his contract. The Mets agreed to buy out the amount on his contract. But the Mets also needed the money to bring a new player. So instead of paying Bobby the $5.9M in 2000, the Mets agreed to defer the payment to the future. They would make annual payments of nearly $1.2 million for 25 years starting July 1st, 2011, including a negotiated 8% interest.

The Mets wanted to cut Bonilla, however, they still owed him $5.9 million dollars on his contract. The Mets were having a great season and wanted to use that money to sign another player to help their playoff push and talked to Bonilla about restructuring his payment. As someone who grew up in poverty, Bonilla was interested in having long term financial security. His agent, Dennis Gilbert, worked out a deal with the Mets where they wouldn’t need to start paying Bonilla for over a decade. At that time, they’d need to pay him $1.2 million per year for 25 years. While at first glance, $25M seems much larger than $6M, these payments are equivalent at an 8% interest rate (or rate of return). This contract (while often mocked by sports fans) gave both the Mets and Bonilla what they wanted and is a great illustration of how a pension or annuity works. One sad footnote: at the time the Mets were confident they’d be easily able to earn more than the 8% rate of return they were guaranteeing Bonilla because they were investing with Bernie Madoff who guaranteed returns of at least 10%. We all know how those investments worked out.

How to Start a Niche Blog [7 Steps to Crush It in 2021]

We often talk about side hustles on Monday Night Finance. Side hustles are a form of self employment that you can do outside of your normal, 9-5 job. Writing and blogging often top lists of best side hustles. While there are hundreds of articles about starting a blog, you will want to make sure that you do it right. Many blogs fail within the first year. This article from Financial Wolves breaks down how to start and run profitable niche blogs.

Once you have your formula down to start, scaling and selling a blog you want to do it for the rest of your life. I’ve started several blogs, scaled and sold them for decent profits. I’ve sold 2 different niche sites for over $250,000 in a span of 1 year. That was all being done as part-time work and during my first foray into niche blogs.

Financial Wolves presents seven steps for building a profitable blog from scratch. The post is filled with infographics that help illustrate key points succinctly. The first several steps involve pre-planning. What kind of website do you want to run, what niche do you want to target, and how do you plan to monetize the blog. Blogs are typically monetized by display advertising, affiliate advertising, or selling your own products or services. These three different revenue forms range in difficulty of execution and also amount of potential profit. Many blogs are monetized with a combination of the three types of revenue, however one is often emphasized the most. After that, you’ll want to find a domain name, hosting plan, and a WordPress theme. Google now heavily emphasizes page speed in its search engine results, so you’ll want to make sure you find a lightweight, responsive theme that loads rapidly. The final steps involved building your audience. You’ll want to check out the article for lots of great tips on building and growing successful blogs.

How Much Does It Cost To Live the FIRE Life in Arkansas?

FIRE stands for Financial Independence/Retire Early. CountAbout has some great FIRE tools to help you track your progress towards financial independence. One big part of pursuing financial independence is tracking your expenses. Once you know your expenses, you can calculate your needed nest egg to support annual withdrawals to maintain that lifestyle. One interesting aspect of FIRE is that expenses are strongly dependent on location. Chrissy by Eat, Sleep, Breathe FI has been running a blog series where she interviews FIRE people from around the world and compares their cost of living. In this post, she interviews Steve from Arkansas who blogs at SteveArk.com.

Hello, and welcome to interview #11 in the How Much Does it Cost to Live the FIRE Life interview series! Part interview, part spending report, this series will introduce us to FIRE* seekers from all over the world. They’ll reveal their essential spending and money-saving tips—all to help us learn new ways to save on our own expenses. As a bonus, we’ll also get to discover the unique advantages and challenges of living in different places around the globe.

As the blog name implies, Steve lives in Arkansas, specifically rural Arkansas. Although Steve is quite wealthy compared to the average American, they are able to live for about $60,000 per year. While most American’s biggest expenses are housing, transportation and food, these expenses amount to less than 1/3rd of Steve’s annual expenses. In fact, Steve’s medical expenses are larger than these “big 3” expenses. Healthcare is certainly a major expense for most Americans, especially those who do not receive health insurance through their jobs. If you’re considering early retirement, you’ll definitely want to check out Chrissy’s series on the cost of living the FIRE life on her blog.

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Shirley Hou
CountAbout was Perfect
15-03-2017

I was looking for finance software to use as treasurer of the parent-teacher association at my child's school. CountAbout was perfect - it had all the register features and download capabilities that I was familiar with from desktop Quicken, but it has the advantage of being in the cloud so I can use it from any computer.

 
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Amanda Sherlock
25-08-2020

I started using Quicken in 1987, before I had my own PC. I continued using it for years, frustrated by the frequent breaks in the synchronization. Finally I took the leap and used Mint for a year or two. Free software is worth as much as I pay for. Finally, in 2019 I found Countabout. The synchronization is great and I am happy to have a product that's easy to use and reliable. The customer support is excellent and very responsive to my questions.
There aren't as many bells and whistles as Quicken but the simplicity outweighs the complications.

 
Barbara Ann Feeney
16-05-2016

I switched from pencil and paper on grid accounting paper, then to a Google spreadsheet, then to CountAbout. Really happy with how this app makes it easy to track how I doing, staying (or not) on budget.

 
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Steve P.
22-09-2017

My search for a cloud-based alternative to Quicken is over! Very easy to transfer my Quicken data and customize my account. Thank you CountAbout!

 
‏@davepurcell
15-11-2016

I rarely tweet endorsements, but -- after years of using/hating Quicken, Countabout is awesome for tracking home budget/finances. Thx!

 
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Richard Luna
03-02-2021

I'm a one-person real estate brokerage and having accurate financial records and being able to easily search transactions and generate reports is crucial. I'd been using Quicken for Mac for 10+ years and wanted to migrate to using a Chromebook instead of a Mac, to do that I had to find a replacement for Quicken.

The replacement had to be online; available from my phone, tablet, etc., and no software installations almost every year. I immediately dismissed any 'free' financial software (Mint, etc.) - I believe that you get what you pay for and there is no such thing as 'free.'

I settled on Tiller and CountAbout and subscribed to both; I quickly decided that a spreadsheet is not what I wanted. I wanted something that worked a lot like Quicken and CountAbout fit the bill. It took me awhile to fully embrace it but once I did I've been very happy and would not go back to Quicken even if they offered a fully online version. The few times I've had a question about using CountAbout I've always gotten a response by the end of the day - and often in an hour or less. If feels like I'm working with a small enterprise that's interested in putting out a superior application, improving it and solving issues and responding to questions. I'm very satisfied!

 
David M.
16-07-2016

CountAbout is as easy to use on my mobile as it is on the desktop and it provides me with the same or better information than Quicken.

 
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Jim Powell
17-03-2018

Vastly superior to the execrable Quicken, which caused me to have to choose a new bank password every time I used it. CA is fast, simple, and all you need unless you have a complicated investment portfolio. Its almost fun!

 
Nate E.
05-02-2016

Fantastic! I finally found a great replacement for Quicken! CountAbout is entirely cloud-based, so you can access it from whatever OS you happen to be using. And the mobile app isn't hamstrung like Quicken's. No looking back for me, this is a great app and a great service!

 
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Jeffrey Wilk
02-04-2018

Great product and great customer service. Thanks!

 
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Keith Hurst
22-05-2020

I've been trying to ditch Quicken for years, finally a worthy replacement, but it's so much more, so clean and intuitively designed. I was really surprised and delighted to find a full featured iphone app that meets all my needs.

 
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Nancy
10-08-2018

I love CountAbout! I have hated Quicken for years, but didn't have an alternative. Now I do! I love that the cost is only $9.99 per year for the basic service (which is all I need). You can upgrade for more features, if you need them. But for personal use, the basic plan is just fine. When I found CountAbout, I gleefully gave Quicken the boot and I haven't looked back or missed it at all. Bye bye Quicken!!!

 
Widgets to Compare Monthly Spending in Active Categories
17-02-2017

Huzzah! I can add widgets now and already made one to compare my monthly spending in my active categories to my budget. Excellent. That tool is one of my favorite features in a personal finance product.

 
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Ann
28-06-2021

Countabout's concept is awesome. I track checking and credit cards by transactions, and investments by total only. The reason for four stars is that periodically the investment accounts refuse to update the correct amount. Then, I have to unlink the account, delete the account then set up the account a second, third or fourth time. Often times, when trying to link a new account, CA logs me out. If you have patience, CA is a hundred times better than Quicken, but not yet perfect. Still trying to set up a credit card account after 6 attempts. At some point, it will click.

 
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Dana Linder
29-03-2019

This is an incredibly well thought out program.

It imports QIF files perfectly. I tried a number that failed miserably.

It has a function that emails reminders about scheduled transactions. That is an extremely useful function that I hadn't seen anywhere.

Tech support is second to none. All my questions were answered in detail within hours (sometimes minutes).

The companion phone app is very simple. You can browse, search, enter transactions and see scheduled transaction. That's really all you need on the phone.

It's one failing for me is that I have a transaction that I have a transaction that occurs on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, and it's not possible to set that up. It's easy enough for me to change the date of next transaction when I enter the current one.

I am extremely impressed with the company. The trial is free for 15 days. You have nothing to lose.

 
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Colin R. Vine
13-07-2021

I have been using Countabout Basic for a few months now and love the program. It is far and away better than any other personal finance program I have used.
I would recommend Countabout to anyone. Give it a try. The web interface is easy to use on my Chromebook and on my Android phone and tablet.
When I have had a query, the company has written back almost instantaneously. Great service!

 
My Bank Tracker
24-11-2016

...you won’t be bombarded with ads when you log in. Mint, for example, uses targeted ads to help keep the platform free. All in all, CountAbout could be a good choice for Quicken and Mint users who want to start fresh with their finances without losing their past transaction history.

 
Mark Goldfarb
20-01-2017

I love the software – nice and clean – the categories was a must have that your competitors are lacking.

 
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Wayne Everett
07-02-2022

I have been using Countabout for over 2 years. I got sick of quicken continuing to "improve" itself with crap I did not want, even if they did not increase their costs constantly. Countabout has done everything that I need. I have 20+ accounts linked and all is great!

 

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CountAbout® is an easy-to-use online personal finance application that imports data from Quicken and Mint and automatically downloads data from banking, credit card, and retirement accounts. With no software to install, we’re anywhere you have an Internet connection. Our platform is stable, secure, and totally private. Our dedicated customer service team is friendly, knowledgeable, and quick to respond.

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