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Posted
Sep 25 2007, 08:33 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
EchoStar, the satellite company that runs the DISH Network, is buying Sling Media for $380 million. Former Sling VP Jeremy Toeman says the deal is a win-win for both sides, and I agree.
 I really didn't get Sling until execs actually demoed the company's signature product, the Slingbox (pictured), for me. The device connects to your TV and then can send the video to a computer over the Internet. The value here is for the traveler. If you're in a Singapore hotel room and you really, really want to catch the premiere of "The Office" on TV, the Slingbox is so worth it. If you're in a U.S. city that isn't showing your hometown baseball team in action, there you go.
Sling Media has been a darling of the tech and venture communities for years, raising about $60 million in financing. But I've wondered how far the company could go with a $130 product. Bigger competitors, like Cisco, are closing in as well.
So from Sling's side, this was a good move and the company got a nice sum of money. In an interview with paidContent, Sling CEO Blake Krikorian said he was about to raise another round before this acquisition. He's hoping to remain operator agnostic, despite the new ownership
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Posted
Sep 27 2007, 11:21 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
You may not need to pay full price when you're shopping on the Internet. A Web site offers thousands of coupon codes for all sorts of items you can buy online. You simply find the code for the item you're purchasing, go to the merchant's site and type in the code. Users of the site can rate the success of each code.
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Posted
Sep 27 2007, 09:33 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Your daughter is a "late-bloomer." She's 28 and still living at home. What's your obligation to her, particularly when supporting her is delaying your retirement? A young blogger examines the ethics involved in this situation.
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Posted
Oct 02 2007, 09:45 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
An admirer of America's cheapest family recounts the lessons he's learned from the Economides clan, a married couple and five children who live on $35,000 a year (and paid off their house in nine years) in Arizona. Teamwork, organization and an unwavering commitment to make frugality a lifestyle (these folks don't use credit cards) work, and even the smallest savings add up.
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Posted
Oct 04 2007, 09:48 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Sam’s Club thinks I deserve luxury. Specifically, the retailer thinks I deserve a pair of Granny Smith apples dipped in caramel, rolled in pecan pieces and drizzled with three kinds of chocolate. This particular luxury would cost me $18.22 -- plus shipping, since it’s available only online.
The two-piece treat was one of several items highlighted in an e-mail whose subject line read, "Luxury You Deserve At Sam’s Club." That got my attention because I’d just read a review of a new book called "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster."
Back in the 19th century, the "luxury" trade was small and aimed squarely at European aristocrats. Now it’s big, big business and marketed to the middle class. For example, the author mentions a secretary who’s saving to buy her second Prada bag.
She’s putting money aside to buy a purse. She’s not saving for a down payment on a home, startup funds for her own business, tuition to further her education or, God forbid, retirement.
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Posted
Oct 04 2007, 12:55 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Research in Motion continued its blockbuster year today by beating analysts' expectations and nabbing its 10 millionth subscriber. The Blackberry maker also beat its own quarterly forecast, reporting revenue of $1.37 billion and profit of $287.7 million, or 50 cents a share. Analysts had expected $1.36 billion in revenue and EPS of 50 cents.
RIM's stock has been hopping this week as investors readied for good news. Analysts were busy too: Credit Suisse's Michael Ounjian raised his price target to $100 from $70, but kept a neutral rating on the stock. He's worried about the company maintaining its margins on the device side in the future.
Analyst Sera Kim with Raymond James downgraded the stock this week to market perform from outperform, but also raised her target price to $100 from $92. She advises investors to wait for the price to drop before buying.
The company's subscriber numbers were impressive, even as a new competitor, Apple's iPhone, debuted during the quarter. RIM reported 1.45 million new users, after saying in June it could have 1.38 million new users. One analyst, Tony Carbone at RCM Capital Management, said the company needed to show 1.4 million when it reported today.
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Posted
Oct 05 2007, 09:18 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
I remember when slow cookers first hit the market, back in 1970. To my cash-strapped family such things were luxuries, culinary toys for the rich. We felt the same way about popcorn poppers and the Fry Daddy.
But I don’t know how I would have made it as a struggling single mother eight years later without the slow cooker. It made most of the meals on which the baby and I subsisted: primarily bean soup, with occasional forays into minestrone and spaghetti.
One or two mornings a week, I’d put a pound of great northern beans in the pot with some grated carrot, chopped onion, pepper, and smoked neck bones or ham hock. When I got home, the smell of soup made me feel like someone had been cooking for me all day. It also took my mind off the sack of dirty diapers that I’d be washing on a scrub board later on.
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Posted
Oct 10 2007, 09:23 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Seattle is loaded with blackberry vines. The sight of all that free fruit makes me want to forage each summer. My arms get so thorn-raked it looks like I’ve tried to exorcise a cat, but I fill the freezer, make jam, and eat blackberries almost every day for weeks.
On my way to pick berries one end-of-summer day, I saw a dark-purple blob in the dust. A plum had fallen from a tree in a nearby yard. I broke open the windfall and took a tentative nibble from its golden interior. Sweet as the memory of first love.
Peeking through the fence, I could see the tree was loaded. I asked the homeowners if I could trade them a jar of jam for the fruit I’d need to make some. They told me to help myself: “We’re glad someone wants it.”
Two batches of jam later, I posted a thread on the Smart Spending message board: Who else out there “puts food by” each year? Do you grow it? Buy it from a farm? Scrounge and scavenge like me?
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Posted
Oct 18 2007, 02:59 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Pinyo at Moolanomy back in August launched the "My One Money Advice" meme , challenging personal-finance bloggers to share their best pearls of wisdom. Pinyo opened with: "Save 10% of your income and make it automatic." More than 50 bloggers have contributed advice since then, ranging from chestnuts like "Spend less than you earn" to the more philosophical " Money is not the problem, you are ." The Dough Roller offered " Live below your means ," only after running around screaming "Get it off! Get it off!" when he saw he'd been tagged with a "MOMA meme." (He calmed down when he looked up meme at Wikipedia .) The latest poster, Growth in Value , a 20-something Canadian, says his favorite "financial cliche" is: Pay yourself first . There's nothing hackneyed about how he does it. A whopping 25% of each paycheck is automatically deposited into savings. "Maybe there'll be one less beer after the game that week, but that sum I ferret away is sacrosanct," he writes.
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Posted
Oct 22 2007, 09:31 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
When life hands you flank steak, make hamburgers. At least that was the tip offered recently by Mary Hunt of Debt-Proof Living: Pick up loss-leader cuts of beef and ask the store butcher to grind them.
Hunt found, and ground, London broil for $1.47. When was the last time you saw ground beef for $1.47 a pound?
But I wondered whether she just had a particularly friendly butcher. So I went shopping.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that all four supermarkets I visited were willing to do special meat orders. Chop meat as a special order -- yep, it made me laugh, too.
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