Most grocery stores now discourage the use of plastic grocery bags in favor of reusable canvas totes. Apparently plastic bags require too much energy to produce, and are unsightly populating landfills. Stores like Whole Foods even give a 10-cent discount when we opt out of a plastic bag. Others like Aldi, don’t even have plastic bags to offer. Years ago many stores in East Asia already began charging for use of plastic bags.

While it is true that plastic bags are produced from natural gas and recycling them can cut down on crude oil usage, we need plastic bags. Aren’t those large garbage bags we use in the kitchen made out of plastic (polyethylene)? What about the black bags lying on sidewalks of NYC awaiting transport to the landfill?

Plastic grocery bags are perfect as trashcan liners. They are the right size to help isolate your garbage from within your large 13-gallon kitchen trash bags. It typically takes me an entire week to fill a 13-gallon bag with trash. Do I want my watermelon rinds, chicken bones, and avocado pits lying in my kitchen for a entire week? Hell no.

Small grocery bags are also great for cleaning up pet litter, especially in the park.

Indeed, it would be a sad day when all plastic grocery bags are gone.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0[/youtube]

Fighting against bottled water. Very interesting.

economy economy

As a continuation of my previous entry, I’m going to review four online savings accounts: Etrade, INGDirect, HSBCDirect, and EmigrantDirect. As I mentioned before, stashing your hard earned cash in an online money market account can help add a couple extra bucks to your savings without risk.

Etrade

Etrade offers full-brokerage accounts in addition to the standard money market account. This means that you can open IRAs and stock portfolio accounts all under one convenient interface. For the longest time, Etrade has offered comparable interest rates to that of other online accounts. At the time of this writing, however, the savings account rate is a measly 0.95%. This rate is still 3-4x what your regular bank (Citibank, Chase, Bank of America) would offer. The redeeming qualities of Etrade include its slick interface and expedient transfers. The web interface is neatly organized according to the type of account you have with them. The monthly account summaries are simple to interpret; you’d be surprised how confusing some bank statements are. Account transfers on Etrade are FAST. Accounts are credited by the evening after you make the transfer, although you may not necessarily be able to draft funds immediately. Your balance begins accruing interest the day you make the deposit. Withdrawing funds directly from Etrade is also convenient; they offer an ATM debit card that is valid at any U.S. ATM machine. Etrade does not have an surcharges on ATM use, and they will reimburse any fees incurred from the other end as well. Overall, Etrade Bank is a good deal. Read more…

economy economy, life, money

Whether you’re a medical resident hoping to make millions out of residency or a computer programmer in a stagnant company, it’s still probably wise to stay atuned to the economy. As a physician in training, I’ve noticed a wide range of economic sense in my peers. Some of us anticipate a fat six-figure salary out of training, and live as if we did (The average hourly rate of a medical resident is equivalent to that of an In-n-Out burger boy). That’s perfectly fine if you’re independently wealthy or have a spouse supplementing your income. The rest of us live somewhere in the middle. Those of us in this medium range will probably have a couple hundred bucks lying around every month leftover from our paychecks. How can we maximize these unspent dollars?

While you can invest this excess green in the stock market, bonds, mutual funds, or any other venture that might promise huge returns, I find that this is impractical for the majority of us for a number of reasons:

1. Unless you had a career prior to medical school, the amount you’d be able to invest off of a resident’s salary is not sufficient to offset any transaction fees, no matter how little your broker charges. Scottrade used to charge $8 per trade. If you’re putting green into the market monthly, you’re incurring a minimum of $96 a year in commission. Try to make that back in this bear market.
2. If you’re working 80 hours a week, you have no time to research your investments. If you’re already economically savvy, go for it. Most of us need to sleep or study for our job.
3. You might actually need the extra cash sometime. You can’t pull out your money in a pinch if it’s invested in the market.

The alternative to investing it is a no-brainer: stash it in the bank. Which bank? The short answer is an online bank. Current interest rates are a pittance, and most banks with a physical branch offer <0.50% rates on their savings accounts. Online banks offer slightly better rates, and are nearly as convenient if you can coordinate them appropriately. There are dozens to choose from, and most of them are generally reliable. Etrade and INGDirect are two institutions that offer online banking.  Stay tuned for my upcoming review of my experiences with various online banks.

economy economy, life, money

I admit that I’m ignorant about business and economics. I’ve been a student for the majority of my life so far, and it seems like the only “economic success” I’ve had is racking up a shocking amount of student loan debt throughout the years. Recently, I’ve been playing catch-up with economic terminology so that once I actually have a positive cash balance, I’ll know what to do.

I’ve read a bunch of guides on cutting spending and minimizing expenses for the average-Joe, but many of the suggestions don’t necessarily apply to me or seem a little bit too fundamental.  Nonetheless, I’ve decided to add on to the list of online guides, and offer some of my thoughts on saving money. Perhaps they will be of use to some people.

1. Credits cards. I am considered a “transactional user”, which simply means that I pay off my credit card balance at every billing cycle. While it’s commonplace for me to tell you not to carry a balance since I don’t myself, I’d imagine this is where you rack up excess consumer debt. Credit card companies charge hefty interest rates up to the 20-30% range for balances. If you carry a monthly balance, then it’s time to crunch the numbers to see where you’re bleeding cash. When you do use a credit card, get some cash return with one that pays cash back on your purchases, like the Chase Freedomcard. I get 3% back on my top 5 categories of expenses, and 1% back on everything else. It adds up, albeit slowly. Read more…

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