Not so @Simple

I submitted my request this morning to close my Simple bank account. I've been a member for a few years, but in my ongoing effort to, ahem, simplify, it's time I bid them adieu.

from bankinnovation.net

I liked the premise of Simple - they were going to reinvent banking. They had a few interesting features, including goal setting. They also had a great interface, both online and later on Android.  The ability to search and classify transactions and the reporting is rather attractive.

And in the beginning, they had this awesome all-white debit card that came in this neat pouch.  I think they had to create a special fee for people who exposed their credit card number in their excitement to tweet about their new card (one of the very few fees they ever had).

I used to love handing over my card because people would be amazed. One cashier demanded to know "what does it do?" not believing it was just a white card, suspecting it to be some kind of supercard, like a black Amex or something.  The card has lost some of its simplicity over the years with the addition of the chip. Sadly, the card also gets dirty quickly and the raised letters of the card number and name eventually turn black.  They can reclaim some of the design simplicity in the future if they eliminate the raised letters like a few of my other credit cards have.  The joint account cards lose the simple design altogether.

I've been a member since nearly the beginning, opening my account at the end of June 2012.  I used it for income from my side gig but it was never going to fully replace my bank so now it's time to move on.

One of its coolest features was Goal Setting - you picked something you wanted to save for and it would deduct money daily from your account into the goal.  You had a "Safe to Spend" number that it kept in front of you at all times.  If you overspent, it would come from the goal, but the idea was if you paid attention to your StS balance, that was unlikely to occur.  It was a neat future and I used it a few times to save up for things.

They also had responsive and personable service from real people, I was able to handle a few issues just over their messaging system, including a disputed charge and a rejected payment for my property taxes that almost cost me a large late fee.

In the early days, they also posted regular blog posts about issues surrounding banking and finances.  I learned a lot of new things and I thought it was a great way to show off that they were smart people trying to do new stuff in a complicated and highly regulated industry.  They seem to have abandoned the sharing of that type of insight and expertise.

Why am I leaving?  A couple of reasons...

No support for Samsung Pay - in an effort to simplify, I'm trying to lighten my wallet as much as possible.  I can't completely eliminate all cards, but I'm trying to use SP when I can because it's pretty slick.

Lack of exciting new innovation - Goal Setting was fascinating and it seemed so obvious. I expected to see regular new concepts like this, a fast clip of innovation that reinvented banking - young, energecity technology people proving they could upend the stodgy old industry, but that really hasn't occurred.  Instead, they got absorbed by a large bank (one that approached me to talk about a job, put me through a ringer with an insane number of interviews before deciding I wasn't what they wanted) and now they're beta testing... get this... paper checks!!!!  I think they're going the wrong way.

Confusing Joint Accounts - I waited for a long time for joint accounts and by the time they showed up, life was just too complicated and I couldn't convince my wife to accept the invite and get her account set up. Plus, the way it exists has been confusing to me.  You end up with mulitple cards and multiple accounts.  It's not simple, or at least not easy to understand.

A really annoying App notification - To be honest, this is actually the one thing that -- more than anything -- is driving me away from Simple. When you use their Bill Pay to pay someone, they send you a notification in the app alerting you when the recipient has deposited the check (as well as an email). I've never had this with another bank and frankly, it was never something that I was missing. It's just extra noise to get an alert, but my only other option was to turn off all alerts and then I'd miss stuff I wanted, like new deposits into the account. I even inquired if they could make it optional, something I could turn off in my account, but I guess I was the only one bothered by it.

So, I've transferred all my money out and submitted a support ticket to have my account closed. (American Express, you're next!)

Free Idea for @Amazon or @Walmart or @Target

Right up front: I offer this idea up to anyone who wants it with no strings attached. (Though credit or a gift card would be nice if you do this and it makes you a ton of money.)

How do you get shoppers to buy on-list (and from your store) when the Baby Registry, Wedding Registry or Wish List is full of higher-priced items?

From time to time, you might encounter a Wish List with items that are just too rich for you. You want to get them a gift you know they'll like, but everything on their list is outside of your price range.

And it's not like you think they're being unreasonable... after all, you have good tastes yourself. A gift card doesn't feel like you put a lot of effort into your gift giving, but looking at that China Gravy Boat that matches their place-settings, the elaborate Stroller that will protect their baby from hurricane-force winds or the Alexa-enabled Universal Remote with Hub for the techie who's just moved to a small house - buying any one of those alone just seems like an overgift.

If you knew who else was invited to the Wedding or Baby Shower, or if you wanted to connect with a bunch of family members before the Birthday, maybe you could do a group gift. But you might not know people - and it's a lot of work, coordinating, collecting and trying not to judge the miser who feels compelled to participate but only throws in a few bucks but writes three paragraphs in the card.

And this is where technology can help.  Presenting Go-In-On.  You specify the dollar amount that you want to put towards a gift and you enter in a note. Others can see what's been pledged and add their own gift. Now, suddenly anyone can help buy that special gift.

Once the first gift is pledged, the clock starts ticking. Other Wish List visitors then have 30 days to fulfill the rest of the cost.  Once the total is met, the item ships along with the well-wishes of everyone who chipped in for the gift.

At the end of 30 days, if the total isn't met, the recipient receives a gift card along with an explanation that everyone pitched in towards the item. The gift card, of course, can be used for anything in the store, but maybe there's a brief discount to encourage the purchaser to buy the original item.  

Feed Sift (05/15/2015)

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WEBURBANIST.COM -- Touching Art: Raised Prints of Famous Paintings for the Blind

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ENGADGET.COM -- Stanford Scientists Make Leukemia 'Grow Up' and Eat Itself

-3-

LIFEHACKER.COM -- Your favorite imaginary friend returns for a third and final season of Moone Boy!

-4-

LITMUS.COM -- Apple Watch Favors Text Version and Breaks Links - I have to ask... as an email marketer, it seems like a 'why even bother?' Maybe for simple transactional alerts or if we get our own MIME-type, but until then, this is just painful.

-5-

LIFEHACKER.COM -- Learn How to Easily Detect Counterfeit Bills

The Sift (July 18, 2014)

Happy Friday! Here's a few things of interest I felt like sharing.

PITCHFORK -- Station to Station: The Past, Present and Future of Streaming Music - deep article, fascinating presentation

TOO MUCH JOY -- My Hilarious Warner Bros. Royalty Statement

EXCELJET -- How to use Evaluate Formula to step through complex formulas

DILBERT -- "Business Plan"

YOUTUBE -- Imogen Heap - Gloves (Dara O'briains Science Club)

Feed Sift (02/28)

Five things I saw recently and wanted to share.

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Dilbert - he needs to be careful, he's starting to sound Like A Boss.

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Nix Tape: 10 Closed & Abandoned Blockbuster Stores - a beautiful article with glorious photos. (No love lost for my former employer and this outdated technology.)

-3-

Say it loud and say it first - Southwest, Delta and United Airlines in for a win. (Yes, I did say United.) Remember, first-mover advantage still works when it comes to marketing and PR.

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T-Mobile's 'Mobile Money' blends prepaid Visa cards and no-fee checking features - fascinating... a bank for the bank-less.

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Including Teens with Special Needs – The Challenge - I like the thought behind this.

Feed Sift (02/07)

Five things I wanted to share from around the web...

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Simple Year in Review - I liked the design of the 2013 recap from Simple Bank, a great bank*.

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7 New Year’s Resolutions I Wish Facebook Would Make - from Social Fixer, an extension everyone should install if they use Facebook, it makes Facebook better.

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NASA shows off a squishy robot rover that could land on Titan (video) - this is just so odd I can't explain it - you kind of have to watch it to understand it

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What's Attention Worth? - another good quick reminder from Seth Godin

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SkyCycle: London Concept Takes Biking to New Heights - could cut travel time down for bikes, be safer, and get more cars off the road. (Unless you choke on the exhaust of the trains below you?)

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(*I totally recommend this bank. This link will tell them I sent you. I don't get paid, but it would be interesting to know if anyone joined because of me.)

Feed Sift

Five things worth passing along...

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Everything I've Learned About Personal Finance in 10 Sentences

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Lessons from Sharknado

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Cutting the Cord, Day 1

At our last house, I literally cut the cord. The cable TV to the house was strung from a high pole near the back of our house into a tree, and then at an angle down to the corner of the house. It was unsightly. The power line was also unsightly, but it was more to the side over the garage so it was less obvious. I cut the cord at the house, wound it back to the property line, cut it again and threw it in the trash. We'd never have cable. Satellite TV was good enough for us. When we moved here, we assumed being on the north face of a hill covered with trees that satellite coverage was impossible, not to mention the frequent overcast skies, so we went with cable. Later a salesman convinced us that satellite TV was in fact possible.  So I've had cable or satellite for the past 21 years. I shudder to think how much money that's cost.

We are going to attempt to "cut the cord" and give up cable/satellite. We've had enough of the high prices and paying for stuff we don't want. Did you know, whether you watch it or not, over $5 of your bill each month goes to ESPN?

We've inadvertently been preparing ourselves for this for some time now - a few summers ago when nothing was on, our friends loaned us DVDs of Vampire Diaries and Bones. We binged on those and then Firefly and really enjoyed the ability to watch a single show night after night - it was continuity in our crazy lives. And then when the new season started, we ended up doing that with most shows - letting a lot of episodes build up before we'd watch that show. It also made the experience even easier - instead of remembering the storylines and plot points of a lot of shows at once and having to wait a week to see stuff progress.

Feed Sift

Here's five things I've come across recently that I wanted to share.

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An End of Books - Seth Godin explores an end. A longer piece, a good read.

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Death and Taxes FY2014 - They'll sell you the poster, but they'll also let you see it in all its meticulous detail on this page. A breakdown of the entire federal budget. (Timeplots.com)

-3-

40 Awesome Maps - This stuff is just fun - from the 22 countries Britain hasn't invaded to what the moon would look like if the United States were located there. (Twisted Sifter)

-4-

Thoughful Design - Why GM cars sound like they do - a brief look into what goes into today's sound engineering. (Medium.com)

-5-

Niagara Falls - some angles you've probably never seen before. (Yeah, you'll probably want to go full screen.)

Not the "A" Game, @Quicken

So Quicken is the software you love to hate. They're the Sprint, the United Airlines, the FTD of software. Though sheer will, a decent product and a distracted half-hearted competitor who threw in the towel (Microsoft), they are the top dog in a very small field of money management software. For overall utility, it's quite a functional piece of software. I know that I'm only using a small piece of it myself to track checking, savings and credit card accounts as well as retirement savings accounts, stocks and an auto loan. There are bits for budgeting and forecasting that we only brush up against the tip of the iceberg on. For our budgeting and closer watch on stocks, Excel can't be beat for extensibility.

click to enlarge

But for overall ability to track funds, download transactions and help us keep everything straight, Quicken gets the job done.  But it's not without its warts. The software is slow, doesn't work in the cloud and requires a PC. There are some cloud-based competitors and the only one that's was really looking like a contender was Mint. It had its shortcomings, like an inability to enter receipts before they were downloaded from the bank and the ability to split receipts for multiple transactions. They might have fixed that by now, but they're also owned by Quicken now and the switching costs for us would be high. Lori likes what technology can do for you, but she has a low tolerance for technical complexity, especially in a task that she's already not fond of, like finance. (She handles most of the receipts and I handle most of the bill paying.)

An aggressive yearly cycle has them constantly demanding we upgrade and after a few years, some functionality stops. They might as well call it a license (not a software purchase). I'd much rather pay $20 a year for the latest version than $60 every 3 years when I'm forced to upgrade.

We upgraded in 2012 so we're looking at 2015 for our next required upgrade. But 2013 added a mobile app that lets you enter receipts and have them sync up with the software.  That sounded pretty cool. But then I looked at the app and it had 2-stars on the iTunes store.

I checked again today, and they haven't updated the app since January. You'd think a product like this would have had quite a few updates since then to address some of the concerns. I'm sure that they're busy with other stuff, but you'd think they'd have a roadmap for regular upgrades, especially when someone can so clearly see what others think.

click to enlarge

And that worries me - that suggests that my pessimism is not misplaced - that this company is hoping that people will upgrade because they're uninformed and stick around because of the high switching costs or perception that there isn't any other options out there for easy financial tracking. (Because they do make it easy. Most of the commentary to contrary from Lori is due to my attempts to run it from a cloud-based service so we could update the same file from multiple computers. That was a colossal failure but not Quicken's fault.)

So c'mon, Quicken - let's see some updates to this app - I'm sure you can do a 3.5 or 4 app easy.

And as soon as you do, I'll upgrade.

13. Ten Things Fail Jameses for the Day #JanBlogaDay

Today we've been issued the topic Top Ten. We don't get much more than a common theme to go from. Sometimes that can be challenging, other times it's quite easy. I convinced my wife to participate and it's been really interesting to see what she commits to screen in a long-form post. She's the queen of Facebook (every post generates enough comments and likes to be its own forum) but I love the insight that comes from the longer thoughts.

So I've been thinking about Top Ten today. I like lists. Lists are my thing. Before I even knew what the topic was, I was making a list. The past few nights I (and the whole family) have been blessed with good sleep. But then last night, we weren't. Rachel and I made poor choices (me staying up too late, her waking up in the middle of the night and choosing to camp out by the supply cabinet eating snacks and reading books), Ben had a period of wakefulness and Lori just didn't sleep well with lots of tossing and turning. So what I was thinking about in my head was how I would react today. I've had a lot of days lately with negativity and I thought it was just how things were, but these past few days, yesterday in particular, showed me just how valuable a great night's sleep can really be.

So if the only difference between yesterday and today was the quality of sleep (and the disappointing near miss by the Seahawks), here's what I need to be cognizant of today:

1. Interruption Frustration - I learned about this from the free therapy I get by attending Rachel's Neurobehavioral consults. This is when you're so engrossed in something that interruptions are seismic, cataclysmic. She and I both suffer from this. I've learned to endure them silently, giving my attention to the interruption while inside what's going on isn't so pretty. Rachel lets the inside out and it can be scary. For her, we've learned to ease into things that will be a disruption. For me, I've learned to remain calm. My ability to shift gears into the interruption is far improved with a good night's sleep.

Tactic/Response: Anticipate interruptions and mentally prepare for them, do not allow myself to become so engrossed that it's difficult to temporarily surface and shift gears.

2. Plan Disruption - that's happening at this exact moment. I had a plan to work on this post and now I'm being asked to do something else as a member of this household and not a selfish person focusing only on myself.

Tactic/Response: Reprioritize. Put the laptop back on top of the printer and walk away. This post can wait. A child needs tickling. Lori's still on the clock her job needs her somewhere else at the moment. At minimum, prepare to multitask.

3. Overstimulation - I can over-stimulated by too much noise especially when I'm trying to think.

Tactic/Response: Be involved in the noise-making if necessary. Eliminate unnecessary noise (fans, music, cat meowing) where possible. (Don't worry, not eliminating the cat, just figuring out why he's meowing and stop him.)  Take a break if the noise is too distracting and can't be eliminated (like a child's TV show.. those are only 22 minutes long anyhow.)

4. Financial Anxiety - It's bill-paying day. The finances are a bit touchy and complicated at the moment.

Tactic/Response: Remind myself that there's nothing to be anxious about and much to celebrate - Lori and I are on the same page to a greater degree than we have ever been before, we've spent the week reducing costs and setting some goals in a way we never have been before. We're making progress, we have a plan.

So Worth It

Two bright shiny new cars in the garage.  Looks so good.  Ok, fine, a 13-year-old sedan and an 8-year-old small SUV.  But I spent $8 each to get them washed this afternoon.  In California, we very regularly paid to have the cars washed.  Now, granted, the cars were newer, there were lots of car washes, and they also vacuumed the insides and washed the inside windows and wiped down all of the interior surfaces, but it was something we indulged in.

And then we moved to Washington and for whatever reasons we stopped getting regular car washes... life was busier, we no longer had two incomes, it rains more here, whatever.  We stopped.  But it wasn't like we started washing the cars by hand.  The hose in the front yard is not conveniently located and it's just a big hassle to go out and wash the cars, dry the cars, etc.  So it didn't even become a case of the value of my time or the value of money, let's just call it what it was: neglect.

I've grown tired of my beautiful car looking less than beautiful.  It's 13-years-old and there is still some remnants from the paint can issue (story here, pictures here) but I still think it looks really good.  I've taken care of it and it's gotten very few door dings and most of the other damage has been replaced with new parts over the years, but it does not look like my idea of a 13-year-old car.

So today I took them both and had them washed.  I am really impressed at how good a job the automated car wash did, even on the rims.

I guess it's going to be up to me to clean the insides of the cars, but I'll probably be more motivated to do that when the outsides are clean.

Odds and Ends 67

-1-

LAST PERSON BLOGGING -- Here We Go Again

-2-

ENGADGET -- Transparent material developed that's twice as strong as Kevlar, infinitely weirder

-3-

INHABIT -- Dated Barn Transformed Into an Incredible Live/Work Space - cool

-4-

OUR SAVIOR'S BAPTIST CHURCH -- What if Outreach Really Were OSBC's 5th Primary Purpose? What if it had a better ranking than #5? I don't know how this plays in just audio, but it was a phenomenal sermon. Taken to heart, the date this was presented would be a date they could look back to and say "This is the day everything changed for our entire city."

-5-

SETH GODIN -- The Four Roads - Which one are you on?

-6-

CROSSCUT -- City budgeting: Isn't it strange?

-7-

THE CONSUMERIST -- Capital One Made Me Different Loan Offers Depending On Which Browser I Used

-8-10- Videos after the break... Sneak attacks, cheap orchestra and awesome people

Chores and Responsibilities

Cross posting on Dad2Be and tvjames x blog.

A friend from work described this to me, so we've been working towards it for some time now. We're finally hitting the next big phase, so I thought I'd describe the process we're using for getting children involved in helping around the house.

The premise boils down to two distinct and different sets of tasks: Responsibilities and Chores.

Responsibilities

These are day-of-the-week specific tasks assigned to a specific child.

Magic Act

I was alternatively thinking of calling this "California Screaming" - as of today, Zillow puts the value of our former home in California at exactly $1,000 more than when we purchased it in August 2003.   (As we offered them $4,500 less than they were asking.)

I know this isn't really a magic act, because if you've heard our story, this was a God-thing - our getting out when we did.  But in some ways, this still disgusts me.  I can't wrap my mind around how money can materialize out of thin air and disappear just as quick.  (When we sold, we had a check large enough to pay for a third of this house in cash and pay off all of our credit cards and both cars.)

I feel bad for the single mom school teacher who financed the entire purchase.  I'm worried she's going to walk away from it and let it foreclose, that poor little house we worked so hard to make nice.

Taxes

Blech. Had forgotten about them. Feel like I was much further along by now at this time last year.

When we lived in California, we used to have this guy named Vittorio do them for us. At H&R Block. The first year, he told us we needed to get a house and a baby. So, we went back the next year the house info. The year after that, some Russian woman who wasn't as helpful. The year after that, Vittorio was back and we introduced him to Rachel. He was quite happy with us for following his advice.

All along, though, we'd watch them click and type and click and click and boy, it sure looked easy. When we moved up here, wanted to cut costs (and life had simplified) and looked at the DIY options. Imagine my surprise to see how similar H&R Block's online offering looked to the ones that the tax advisors were walking us through. So now I'm a big fan of the H&R Block online option as a quick and relatively painless way to do our taxes. The system always shows you in the top right corner how much you'll owe or get back as a refund - as you move through the screens you can see the number change and see how each little thing affects the end result positively or negatively.

And because we always get a small refund, it's fun to watch the numbers grow as we add in stuff like property taxes and charitable giving. So it ends up being a happy experience as we anticipate that number. And at the end, it files them automatically and within days (because we file so early) the money's deposited directly into our checking account. (Sadly, this year, it's going straight to the credit card.)

Where's George?

I rarely have cash and I don't always remember to mark them, but for the first time ever, one of the bills I marked (am I admitting to an illegal act*?) and entered into WheresGeorge.com actually got re-entered. I'm bummed to see it traveled at a speed of 0.14 miles per day over the past year and a half (I could have walked there faster), but it really makes me wish I had more money to mark and release.

WheresGeorge.com is a fun little site. You create an account, and then you enter in the serial number of all your bills. Then you write "www.wheresgeorge.com" on them. And then you spend them. Other people go to the site, enter in the serial numbers and you can start to see where your money goes.

I have entered 31 bills worth $971, surprised no others have shown up.

(*No. It's only illegal if it makes the bill unusable or is done in attempt to fraudlently gain from it.)

Not Feeling So Smug

First my dad tells me that H&R Block's online program fails to check a box on his tax form and that it probably didn't check it on mine, either. A box worth about $150; and that he recommends I file a 1040X. I'm 75% tempted to not -- what better way to pick a candidate for an audit than someone who files an amended tax return asking for money. Only last night I realize that I failed to account for $210 a contractor paid me in June 2007 for work I did in October 2006. Ugh. So now I must file. It's still a net gain, but it's not all that exciting. All this work avoided by paying H&R Block $20 to do my taxes overturned by mistakes on both parts leading to a form which the IRS says takes people an average of 3-1/2 hours to complete. Blargh.

At least they're done

For the past few years, I haven't minded doing my taxes. It meant taking a rainy Glendale afternoon and heading a few blocks to Sears where Vittorio would take all of our forms, chit-chat and we'd watch him carefully as he typed in everything into the H&R Block computer and print out our taxes. It took probably 90-120 minutes and we walked out, knowing that in a week or so our bank account would see a nice bump as the IRS and the Franchise Tax Board returned to us what was ours all along. My dad always considered refunds an interest free loan to the government, and thus, a bad thing. We considered it forced savings -- a chance to finance a larger purchase like a vacation, furniture, home improvment with cash.

This year my dad was rumbling about the costs of paying someone to do your taxes and extolling the virtues of doing one's taxes by hand, on paper! (Yeah, no opportunity to make comments on this post.) And he was offering his assistance to me!

To head him off at the pass, I went ahead and did them on TaxCut.com. Oddly enough, it looked incredibly similar to what Vittorio used the past few years. Last year he got us from the 25% tax bracket we were in to an effective 6% tax bracket. This year, I didn't have his expertise to find little deductions, but we had less income and gave a lot to churches and charities after we sold the house, I was able to take us from 15% to 2%. I'm pretty proud of that.

Now... if you haven't done your taxes yet, and like Starbucks, let me know. If I send you a referral e-mail, we both get $5 when you do your taxes through TaxCut.com.