OK, so I get a shiny flier in the mail yesterday from Elite Rewards. As usual I am reaching for the trash can to toss it because it is credit card related, and something makes me open it just to see whats inside. Well, I got a surprise when I opened it! Apparently, one of my old Bank of America credit cards, formerly MBNA, had racked up a lot of points befoe I paid it off a long time ago. I never closed the account, just paid it off, cut up the card, and left it at that.

I had almost 24,000 points! Wow, I thought! I got on their website and signed up. There was actually some pretty cool stuff I could have got, but I clicked on the gift card section to see what was there.

Gas cards!!! They only had three to choose from: Shell, BP and Chevron. Shell is the only one of the three around here, so I ended up getting $175 worth of Shell gas cards, and there was just enough left over to get 2 movie tickets to a Cinemark movie theater.

Ironically, there is a Shell station right next door to the Cinemark theater in town!

That should get me about 5 fill-ups in my little Subaru. That's good for almost 2 months!

The old Subaru I bough a while back is still my daily driver. When I bought it, I knew that all four front CV joints were going bad. All of the boots were ripped, so it was just a matter of time before the grease was gone and the joints start making noise.

The old car has given me a consistent 28 to 28.5 mpg. If you recall, I paid $1000 cash for the car with just over 200,000 miles on it.

Well, the right front side started making noise a few weeks ago. As it got worse, to the point it was making a grinding sound just going straight, I bought a remanufactured half-shaft and replaced it. The remanufactured shaft was about $30 cheaper than a new one, and the warranty is the same. Lifetime!

At the same time, I decided to do a tune-up. Oil change, new air filter, spark plugs, and plug wires. When I went to swap out the plug wires, I was shocked to see that they were the originals! The 1991 date stamp was clearly visible on them! Over 218,000 miles on those wires!

The end result was a 1.5 mpg increase! Last tank resulted in 29.7 mpg! The CV joints on the left front are making noise too, so I will probably replace that half-shaft soon. I am sure I picked up a little mileage by replacing the right side just due to the metal to metal friction of the bad joints since there was no grease.

It's a fairly ugly little car, but it's paid for, has saved me a lot of money, gets me to and from my destination cheaply, and has been flat out reliable. Can't ask for more than that.

Procrastination. Look it up, you will see my picture right next to the description.

I have had a Roth IRA at T. Rowe Price for awhile now. I also opened up another Roth through Scottrade so I could make some trades with regular stocks. I actually did quite well this year, as my two biggest plays were a Euro ETF (FXE) and an oil ETF (OIL). When I sold them, I had returns of approximately 10% and 45%, respectively.

I finally opened and account with Vanguard and transferred the cash assets of both accounts into the new one at Vanguard. Now I only have one to watch over, however I still have a SIMPLE IRA through work, and my wife has a 401(k) and a 457 at her work.

As an added bonus, I can contribute up to $5000 a year now. WooHoo!!!

I am excited to see the way my kids deal with their allowances and birthday money.

A couple years ago, not knowing exactly how to approach my son, the oldest, about handling money, I found a program called KidsWeath (www.kidswealth.com). He loves it, and is easy to follow. Basically, he has three wallets to put his money into each month. Wealth, plan, learn, fun and angel. Everything is split up into each wallet based on a certain percentage. When he gets $20 in his "Wealth" wallet, I put it in my checking account and transfer it to his FNBODirect.com saving account.

Both of my kids have online savings accounts. When they get $100, they (I) buy themselves a Savings Bond. My son just bought his first in his name only this Saturday (I had been buying them for him with both our names on them). I was a very proud father to watch him go to the counter (while I stood back and watched) and hand over his mostly completed form and tell the clerk "I need to buy a savings bond please." The clerk really played it up too, he was awesome! Watching my son (7, will be 8 in September) signing the form was the best part! I put that copy in my safe, that one's a keeper!

I am trying to walk a fine line here; teaching them the right ways about money, without being over bearing about it. So far it seems they (especially the boy) like it. Anymore I don't say much to them. I can tell it has taken ahold for the most part. Especially when it comes to buying toys. I have actually heard both of them say "they don't need any more toys, we already have stuff we don't play with. Besides, I would rather save my money for something else."

Whenever I use my debit card, my son is always asking me "Dad, is that a credit card or debit card?" I'll say debit card. He'll reply, "good job Dad. I don't like credit cards!"