My last two social security digits are 53. So, according to the payment schedule, I was supposed to receive the stimulus payment this morning. Although, with all of the comments on this site from people who didn’t receive it last Friday, I was not counting on anything. So, I logged into my checking account this morning, and to my surprise, there was a direct deposit from the U.S department of the Treasury. I thought, “wow, I was one of the lucky ones to get my payment as advertised.”

However, there is more to the story. I looked at the amount that was deposited and it was $600.00. I thought to myself, “I’ve researched this stimulus payment thing since day one, and I know that we were supposed to receive $1,200.” My wife and I filed jointly on our 1040 return. She is a student, and I brought in most of the income for 2007, but according to all of the literature that the IRS gave out, if you filed jointly and you made between a certain amount of money for 2007, you’ll receive the $1,200 as long as you “filed jointly” on your return. I’m thoroughly confused now. I’m definitely not complaining, because at least I received something and it was on time. However, the $1,200 that we were entitled to would have been nice.

This is where it gets really funny. I go on the IRS website and I answer all of the detailed questions on their payment calculator form, and even that says that I should receive $1,200. I call the IRS toll-free number, which is 1-800-829-1040 or 1-866-239-2942, and a recording says to me, “We’re sorry, due to unusually high call volume, we cannot take your call at this time”. Seriously? Only the IRS will hang up on you when they get busy.

My wife’s last two digits are 47, so if $600 was coming separately, they both would have been scheduled for today. The only other thing that I can think of is that I put on our return that she is a full-time student. So maybe you can only receive the $1,200 if both spouses contributed to the household income, but that is not how I understood the information when it first came out. Oh well, I’ll keep you all updated on what happens. But, don’t bother trying to get a hold of the IRS for questions right now. I would wait to the middle of next week when call volumes will be lower.

There are quite a few people that are angry and frustrated over the first week of economic stimulus payments rolling out as portrayed by the comments on this post. The payment schedule that the IRS printed is obviously not being followed. People with their last two digits in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, are getting their payment before people in the 00’s, 10’s, and 20’s. I’m not going to sit here and act like I know why it’s all screwed up, but here are a few ideas for why you may not have received your payment yet.

1. You used a third party company to e-file your taxes. I did this, and according to the chart, I’m supposed to receive my payment tomorrow. I’ll let you know if I get it. If I don’t, then this theory may have some credence to it. If you used a third party e-filing company such as Turbo Tax or Tax Act Online, then the payment schedule may not apply.
2. The IRS is using your spouse’s social security digits if you filed jointly.
3. You filed your taxes less than 6 weeks ago. It might not have given them enough time to set up your stimulus payment to be processed.
4. You owe backtaxes, child support, or you are delinquent on a federal student loan. If you any money to the federal government or you owe court-ordered child support, your stimulus payment will be applied to those outstanding debts. The IRS should send you a letter explaining how it was applied, but who knows when you’ll receive that notice.
5. The IRS is just slow and unorganized. This is the most likely scenario. I am amazed that there are so many people out there that want to hand the health care system over to our government. They can’t even handle a simple task such as sending our checks and direct depositing money.

Remember . . .

Do NOT rely on this stimulus payment to pay monthly bills. Act as if you aren’t going to receive the payment. It would be silly to fall behind on a payment, because you were waiting on the check. We now know that the payment schedule is not accurate, so do not count on the money at a specific time.

I just read this article on Yahoo Finance, courtesy of Bankrate about using a car-buying service to shop for a new car. I’ve heard of this, but I’ve always been a little skeptical about the service. What if they don’t get you any deals? Do you get your money back?

The way it works is you give all of your information to the company including credit information, (scary) contact information, and information about what type of car you are looking for. Then, you shell out a couple hundred bucks, and they go shopping for you. Apparently, they are supposed to negotiate the best deal possible for you to get the new car. According to the article, some companies can negotiate prices close to invoice. However, sometimes the price they give you isn’t the “out-the-door” price.

Some car-buying services give you a price that’s close to invoice, but neglect to tell you of added dealer fees and other costs that suddenly appear when you go to pick up the car and sign the paperwork, he says.

“That good deal you thought you were getting is not such a good deal anymore,” Shebesta says.

The article advises you to get a copy of the buyer’s order before you go into the dealership to pick up the car. Also, it’s important to remember that you won’t get as good of a deal from these services if you’re looking for one of the more popular cars.

Car-buying services have their own pricing structures when negotiating deals. “Our pricing structure is to negotiate 1 percent over invoice for cars, but 3 percent over invoice for high-line vehicles like Lexus, Mercedes and BMW,” says Oxsalida.

However, some cars may not be included in these guidelines. “There are also vehicles that are excluded from our program based on supply and demand,” Oxsalida says. “For example, a new model coming out that already has a waiting list would be excluded.”

Also, the article points out that these services are not for everyone. You might do better on your own. But, make sure you go into the dealership equipped with your most powerful tool: knowledge of the vehicle.

Shoppers who go it alone are likely to have better luck if they first research the cars in which they are interested. “To learn about car values, research car sites on the Internet,” Fix says. “Know the cost of any extra features for the model you’re looking for.”

Have you used one of these services to buy a car? How was your experience? Did you feel like you saved a bunch of money? Write a comment below and share your experience if you’ve used one of these services. Please research these companies before you use them, because I can foresee there being a lot of scammers out there just looking for you to shell over your money while they don’t do jack squat to help you find a deal.

If you haven’t noticed, mortgage lenders, brokers, and their agents are hurting right now. They’re looking for any business they can get. They’re not getting it from new business, because no one is buying a house right now. So, mortgage companies are looking for their business from the refinance market. That’s why you shouldn’t settle for anything less than the best refinance situation that is possible. Here are a few things you should look for when picking a lender or broker to refinance your mortgage.

• No money down. You’re refinancing an existing mortgage. You already put money down on the original mortgage! Don’t get suckered into putting money down for a refinance deal.
• No Closing Costs. Again, you should only have to pay closing costs on a new purchase, not a refinance.
• No points or origination fees. Points added to the refinanced loan or any mortgage for that matter, is simply prepaid interest. It’s interest that you pay up front to reduce the overall interest rate. With rates as low as they are right now, you shouldn’t have to pay points or origination fees. Ask for a “par” interest quote.

Mortgage lenders and brokers want more business on the books. So, they will be willing to negotiate. You may not be able to find a place that will offer no money down, no closing costs, and no points in a booming housing market. But in a down market like this one, mortgage lenders just want the interest on the loan. Don’t let them take you for more costs that you simply should not have to pay.

What does being upside down on a car loan mean?

It means that you financed a car with little money down, and now you owe more money than the car is worth. This is very easy to do, because cars depreciate at a rapid pace for the first 3 years of their life. Let’s be honest, they depreciate rapidly their WHOLE life. You can list a car as an asset in your balance sheet if you want, but you’re kidding yourself. It’s not an asset or an investment. It’s an expense. No, I’m not a Robert Kiyosaki follower. I treated cars this way before he wrote “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. He even calls your personal house an expense, which I strongly disagree with. But anyway, getting upside down on a car loan is extremely common, and many people don’t find out until they try to sell or trade the car a few years after the purchase. So, how can you avoid getting upside on your car loan? Here are a few tips.

• Don’t finance a car. The easiest way to avoid being upside down on a car loan is to buy one with cash. If you don’t have much money or you don’t have a lot of money to save once all of the bills are paid, then you’d have to settle for an older car with low mileage. If you have the ability to save a lot of money in a little time, then all you need to do is delay your pleasure of buying a newer car and save up for the car to buy it outright.
• Treat a car purchase like a house. If you’re completely enamored with having a new car and you can’t wait to have it, then you should at least try to save up 20% of the purchase price. This will be your best defense against the horrendous depreciation that your new car will experience over the next two years.
• Pay more than the specified monthly payment. If you’re going to finance, I would get a five year loan so the monthly payment is small. Then, pay one a half to two times the amount of the car payment. You’ll pay off more of the principal early on. Car loans are just like mortgages, they front load most of the interest so you pay more interest in the beginning of the loan and less at the end of the loan.
• Keep the car well maintained. Don’t drive the car across the country and back. Keep the paint job nice. Get all of the maintenance done quickly so a bigger problem does not arise. Keep the interior nice. If you don’t rack up the car mileage and keep it nice, the resale value will be in the upper tier rather than the lower tier for resale.

Someday, I hope to be in a position where I can save up enough money to buy new cars without it being any kind of strain on my finances. Wealthy people don’t finance cars. They pay cash for them and drive them for a long time. Make your goal to stop the cycle of going from one car payment to another. If you break that cycle, you’ll be one step closer to achieving independent wealth.

HITMAN BRIBE SCAM

This is one of the most ridiculous scams I’ve heard about in a long time. Apparently, it started popping up in late 2006 and early 2007, but this is the first time I have heard about it. Which means, it hasn’t been too effective. However, I think it’s still worth bringing to your attention, because it could land in the right person’s inbox and severely scare them into doing something stupid.

It’s called the “Hitman Bribe” email scam. For two examples of the email you might receive, click here.

Basically, you get an email from a supposed hitman, who is contacting you to make you aware that someone (sometimes specifically a co-worker) has hired him to kill you for a certain amount of money. He tells you that he will not go through with it if you pay him a certain amount of money. Then, he proceeds to tell you that if you go to the cops he will proceed with carrying out the plot to kill you. Many of us would laugh and click “delete” faster than a politician can tell a lie, but there are some out there who may actually have enemies out there. This is what the scammer is hoping for. The scammer is hoping that he’ll catch a handful of people who really start to worry about the notion that a hated co-worker or ex-spouse has it out to kill them. Well, if you do get an email like this, it’s a scam. Thousands of people have received the email, so disregard it. Plus, a hitman would send you an email as contact. They are smart enough to know that leaving a paper trial is not the smartest thing to do.

STIMULUS REFUND SCAMS

There are four different ways that someone might try to scam you out of your stimulus refund check. By phone, by email, door-to-door, or by snail mail.

Here are some tips for avoiding being scammed out of your stimulus refund check.

1. Never respond to any emails regarding your economic stimulus payment. The IRS is not going to contact you through email. They’ll also never ask you for your social security number or bank account information.
2. With the option of having your check direct deposited, I can foresee many scammers trying to get your bank account information by acting like the IRS trying to set up bank account information. AVOID THESE SCAMS! The IRS will never call, email, or send a letter asking for your bank account information.
3. Never accept any offers from people saying they will add an extra percentage onto your refund check unless it is a large retailer such as Sears, Kroger, or other respected retailer. Plus, no one will go door-to-door from a large retailer to offer this deal to you.
4. Never hand over your refund check to anyone, period. Especially those going door-to-door.
5. Always keep in mind that the IRS does not have enough time to contact 100 million people for “verification” of your personal information. Believe me, they already have your personal information, they don’t need to verify it.
6. Don’t believe anyone approaching you that says they can turn your refund check into more money. Unless they’re magicians or wizards, it’s a scam.

Yes, the economy has slowed down due to the housing market decline, the credit meltdown, and high oil/food prices. But, according to a report today, the economy’s GDP still grew 0.6 percent. No, it’s nothing special, but it does bring out one point. By definition, we are NOT in a recession.

The definition of recession from Investopedia.com:

A significant decline in activity spread across the economy, lasting longer than a few months. It is visible in industrial production, employment, real income and wholesale-retail trade. The technical indicator of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth as measured by a country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

We have not had two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, so we can’t be going around saying, “oh, this recession sucks”. It’s not true. We’re not in a recession. You don’t call every car that you see a Toyota. You call it a car, because that’s what it is. We are experiencing an economic slowdown, not a recession. The media just likes to throw that word around because it’s become a political word due to its negative connotation.

Okay, I got that off of my chest. You can go back to caring about more important things.

I thought it’d be fun to hear from people who have received their stimulus payment so far. I haven’t received my payment yet, but according to the payment chart, it should be sent to my bank account next Friday, May 9th. However, it could be earlier than that since they started sending the stimulus refunds this past Monday.

So, if you were one of the few to receive it first, post a comment below that you received it and how you plan on spending/saving it.

My wife and I are very similar, but we definitely have our differences. She doesn’t care for Chick-Fil-A, but I love it. I love all of their stuff, and their management is great in my area. Every Chick-Fil-A in the Jacksonville area is very clean, has great service, and the food is very fresh. She debated with me that it was so unhealthy, and it’s too greasy for her. Then, I was reading an article in Men’s Health a few months ago that rated Chick-Fil-A an “A” for fast food choices, because all of the choices on the menu are less than 500 calories. Granted, there are some choices that are worse than others on the menu, but generally Chick-Fil-A strives to make their food as healthy as fast food can be by using leaner frying oils, wheat buns on the chargrilled chicken sandwiches, and offer light dressings. They also offer side salads and fruit cups as an alternative to their fatty “but delicious” waffle fries. Not to mention, you can get a lunch or dinner for less than $8.00 on most meals.

One of the biggest fallacies about fast food right now is that the upscale fast food places are more healthy. Restaurants such as Chipotle and Panera Bread portray an image that it is healthiere for you rather than greasey burgers and french fries. But in reality, the items on their menus are gut busters. Many of the Panera Bread signature sandwiches are 700 to 900 calories each! Pair that with soup and a drink, and you’re well over 1000 calories. We all know that humongous Chipotle burritos are a portion’s worst nightmare. It’s tough to eat one of their burritos that isn’t less than 1,000 calories. Plus, they come at a premium price. You will typically pay $9.00 to $10.00 per meal at these half sit-down restaurants. Here are two suggestions for healthy, cheap meals from Chick-Fil-A that I recommend.

1. Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich: 270 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 33 carbs, and 28 grams of protein
2. Side Salad with Fat Free Honey Mustard/Sunflower Seeds/Croutons: 270 calories, 12.5 grams of fat, 24 carbs and 6.5 grams of protein.
3. Diet Coke or Diet Lemonade: 25 calories for the Diet Lemonade, 0 for Diet Coke

Total: 540 calories, 16 grams of fat, 52 carbs, and 34.5 grams of protein.
Price: $6.39 plus tax

1. Southwest Chargrilled Chicken Salad w/ light italian dressing: 255 calories, 8.5 grams of fat, 19 carbs, 25 grams of protein
2. Fruit Cup: 50 calories and 13 carbs
3. Medium Sweet Tea: 130 calories, 34 carbs

Total: 435 calories, 8.5 grams of fat, 72 carbs, and 25 grams of protein
Price: $7.19 plus tax

I’m going to start this health and money theme here at Money Crashers, because I believe that it is possible to eat for cheap without sacrificing your health.

I wrote a review/post a few weeks ago about UpDown.com, the virtual stock applicaton. This isn’t the first virtual stock application to hit the web, but its unique in that you can earn real money by beating the S&P 500 on a monthly basis and writing quality stock analysis. So, I thought that I would update you with the progress from March 30th to April 29th.

My Overall Performance:

• My return since start: 2.79%
• My annualized return: 40.73%
• S&P 500 return since I started: 5.68%

This isn’t wasn’t a bad start, and a 40.73% annualized ain’t too shabby! However, I’m no where near beating the S&P 500 based on its performance this past month. It’s apparent that the market did very well this month, even though everyone is still preaching the gloom and doom of the slowing economy and throwing the “R” word around.

My Best Single Stock Performers:

• Apple (AAPL): 14.26% gain
• Google: (GOOG): 11.74% gain
• First Solar, Inc: 7.3% gain
• Visa (V): 14% gain

If you don’t have these stocks in your portfolio, you need to buy tomorrow! Apple and Google fall hard when the market is down, but they soar even higher when the market is up. I am a firm believer that these two companies are and will be the most cutting edge technology companies for the 21st century. Also, Visa is a winner, just like Master Card has been a winner. They aren’t in the business of lending, they’re in the business of credit/debit transactions. I really don’t think they will have any fall-out from the slowing economy. People will continue to swipe their card, whether its a credit card or debit card. As long as people are swiping the card, Visa makes money. Plus, they are a global company.

Worst Single Stock Performers:

• International Coal Group (ICO): 14.93% loss
• Berry Petroleum (BRY): 4.66% loss
• Sirius Radio (SIRI): 3.94% loss

I thought that the Coal industry would do well since the petroleum industry has been doing so well. This may have just been a bad month. I’m going to hold on to it for a little while to see what it does. I’ve never heard of Berry Petroleum, so that’s what I get for buying some based on someone’s analysis on Updown.com. I’m going to hold Sirius, because if the merger goes through with XM, the stock will soar.

It really is a fun site, so I encourage you to sign up and give it a try. You have nothing to lose, and you’ll learn a lot about stock valuation, investment strategies, and it will just help you stay current on what the market is doing.