I love books. I have hundreds of books. I’m looking for a way to try and keep track of all of them. I can’t remember what I’ve read and what I haven’t read. And when I’m buying books, I can’t remember what I own and what I don’t. There’s a few books that I have 2 copies of. Maybe I thought I lost it or just forgot that I had it. I don’t really know.

So I’m thinking, if I could build a database of what books I have, it’d be much easier to know what I have and I’d quit wasting money on buying books I already own. I’ve thought about building a database in access, but surely there’s something better out there. I’ve done a bit of research but still can’t find the perfect one.

I need a program that is either web-based (yet to find one of those) or can be exported to a common format such as Excel.

Collectorz.com Book Collector is the best I’ve found so far. It links up with Amazon or the Library of Congress and pulls up all of the book’s information from the ISBN #.

Koha looks to be interesting as well. It is an open source project that can be used to manage huge public libraries with multiple branches. It may be a little overkill for the personal library

As I continue to research this I’m finding that there’s literally hundreds of options.

Shareware library management tools

Another list of library management options – Look towards the bottom

Anyone have any suggestions?

Well the other day I started looking for a good cell phone deal. I followed my usual tactic of checking websites and calling stores until I stumbled across WireFly. WireFly takes the Froogle approach in that, as far as I can tell, they don’t actually sell any products. They are a hub of information. It’s a conglomerate of every major cellular provider’s offers. It’s like walking into a store with phone kiosks from Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, Alltel, Nextel, and U.S. Cellular – all of them competing for your attention.

Once on the site you have the option of searching for phones, basic service plans, family plans, accessories, ring tones or pre-paids. Going through the service plans they have a neat rating system. For each plan under each carrier they show J.D. Powers and Associates rating for the company’s customer service and value.

Browsing through their phones, they have some great deals on smartphones, especially the Blackberries. They have the usual set-up in that to get the good deals on phones you have to sign up for service. No surprise there.

Speaking of buying a new phone, I hate mail-in rebates. WireFly makes it easier with a semi-innovative feature. You can submit and track your phone’s mail-in rebates on their site. No mess with mailing in 16 copies of your various pieces of paperwork. Just submit your rebate online and wait for your check.

I love making decisions easier. I think that WireFly does a good job at doing just that.

Disclosure

Christmas time is here and so are Christmas parties. And what is one of the most popular games to play? Dirty Santa of course!

I love Dirty Santa. It is one of my favorite Christmas games. The dilemma I always run in to is “What gift can I bring that fits in the budget?”

Generally the host of the party sets a Dirty Santa gift limit of $5-$25 (Although I have a friend who’s family sets a limit of $150 which makes for a pretty interesting game.) The lower the limit, the more creative and resourceful you have to be.

I never like ending up with junk from a Dirty Santa game. Thus, I present my Top 10 Dirty Santa Gift Ideas Under $5.

1. $5 to Starbucks – This is so simple. I know many people don’t like giving gift cards, but I think that Starbucks is a different deal. Everyone loves Starbucks. Believe it or not, this is usually one of the hottest items at parties that I attend.
2. Candy/Chocolate – This one is great. For $5 you can buy a lot of candy. This is also a great gift idea if there will be kids playing at the party.
3. A Candle – Candles are great gifts. Who doesn’t love candles?
4. Scarf/Gloves – Stop by any major retailer and you can find racks full of cheap scarfs, hats, and gloves. Try to get something that is unisex though. Or, for a good laugh, get the brightest, pinkest set that you can find. (Works especially well at a party with a lot of guys.)
5. Hand held/travel games – Games are another popular one at Dirty Santa parties. These could be anything from a puzzle book to an electronic poker game.

 

6. A Christmas Ornament – An ornament is great for parties where you have no idea what else to get. If you are totally stuck, this one works perfectly. It’s very general, practically everyone has a Christmas tree, and it’s cheap!
7. Coffee Cup – Another very general gift that works well for office parties or any other place where edible underwear is just inappropriate.
8. A Picture Frame – Grandma loves these. If you need a serious gift and a small budget, this one fits the bill.
9. Cookies – Much better than giving America’s Finest Fruitcake Loaf. Cookies are similar to candy. Adults as well as kids can appreciate them so it works well for all age groups. However, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea at a diabetic party
10. Music – CDs and MP3s fall into this category. You can find all sorts of Christmas music for super cheap at large retailers. You could also give a few free songs from iTunes or another online music service.

So there you have it. The Top 10 Dirty Santa Gift Ideas Under $5. Didn’t find what you were looking for? Try eBay below!

Opportunity cost is is the cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone (and the benefits that could be received from that opportunity), or the most valuable forgone alternative, i.e. the second best alternative. For example, if a city decides to build a hospital on vacant land that it owns, the opportunity cost is some other thing that might have been done with the land and construction funds instead. In building the hospital, the city has forgone the opportunity to build a sporting center on that land, or a parking lot, or the ability to sell the land to reduce the city’s debt, and so on. – Wikipedia

Around here a high school graduate with no degree can earn around $7.00 per hour without trying too hard. So let’s create a basic scenario. We have 2 guys. One graduates high school at the top of his class, goes on to a prestigious college, then goes on to medical school, graduates and makes it to his residency and his fellowship and is a full fledged medical doctor after 12 years. Guy number 2 graduates high school and goes on to get a job at your favorite fast food chain making $7.00 per hour.

Alright, it seems that the first guy is in a much better position. But wait, let’s look into this further. In a strenuous medical program, he probably won’t be working. More than likely, he’s going to school from 8 to 5 and studying from 5 to 10 – no time to work. So that means that for the first 12 years of his “working life” he won’t be working.

Now, enter guy number 2. He’s now working at a fast food chain making $7.00 per hour (we’ll assume that that’s an after-tax number.) Let’s say he is working 40 hours per week and only takes 2 weeks off per year. That means he’s making $280 per week which comes out to $14,000 per year – not much. That only comes out to $168,000 over 12 years (probably the amount of school loans that our doctor will have…)

But really, that’s not the true opportunity cost for our top student, the doctor. It’s actually much more than than $168,000. Let’s take a scenario a little further, maybe even stretching it a little, but stick with me. Let’s say that both of our guys live at home until the doctor graduates. Let’s even stretch a little further and say that both guys have a small job on the side for their spending money. Alright, now, what if our slacker took his $14,000 per year and invested it in a mutual fund earning 12% per year. So at the end of 12 years he has invested a total of $168,000. Also, suppose that after the initial 12 years he never invests another penny. At age 65 he would have an astounding $24,310,814.15!

Don’t believe me? Do the math:

Use the future value of an annuity to get the amount that would be in the fund after the initial 12 years.

where

1. FVA the value of the annuity at time=n
2. A the value of the individual payments in each compounding period
3. r equals the interest rate that would be compounded for each period of time
4. n is the number of payment periods.

Then use the future value formula to determine the growth of the fund from age 30 to age 65.

where

1. PV the value of a dollar at time=0
2. FV the value of a dollar at time=n in the future
3. r equals the interest rate that would be compounded for each period of time
4. n is the period of time you want to equate.

$24,310,814.15 is a heck of an opportunity cost for spending 12 years in school!

What do you think? Let me know below.

Eric Bernatchez at About.com has a great article on mail-in rebates. While this article is focused on cell phone rebates, it applies to just about any product.

According to Eric, manufacturers have good reasons to offer rebates:

• They expect you to forget about the rebate
• They make the process very complex in order to discourage you from applying for the rebate
• They actually make more money since most people will not ever get their rebate

But he offers some great tips on how to beat the system:

• At the store, ask for an extra copy of the rebate form
• Make sure there is a 1-800 number to call if you need assistance
• Make copies of everything before and after you fill it out
• Use a service such as memotome.com to remind you when you should receive the rebate

As a big rebate shopper I can attest to all of those points. I love the [tag]deals[/tag] you get with rebates, but I hate using them. If you are in the same boat I am, then make it as easy as possible on yourself this year – stay organized and make copies of everything!

Are you a big rebate shopper? Do you have any rebate horror stories?