Easy (and Free) Ways to Go Green

Today marks the beginning of a series that I hope I will be able to keep up with in the coming weeks. I hope to do a series of short posts about ways to clean up your finances and do a sort of spring cleaning if you will. I know I have fallen behind things, so maybe this will help me get back on track.

Everyone has at least one credit card that has some sort of reward, or is at least an affinity card of one type or another. For those of you who are somewhat environmentally conscious, but can't part with your SUV or other less than environmentally friendly habit - I stumbled across something yesterday that may be of interest. It seems that some credit card issuers are looking into so called "green" causes as a way to boost membership and profits. I have listed some of these cards and their benefits below.

GE Money Earth
This MasterCard directs 1% of your purchases to causes that reduce or avoid greenhouse gases and helps to offset your personal carbon footprint.
Direct Link

Working Assets Visa
This Visa donates 10 cents to organizations like the Ocean Conservancy or Global Fund for Children every time you make a purchase. You can view of full list of the organizations supported here.
Direct Link

Bank of America Brighter Planet
This Visa credit or check card returns 1 Worldpoint for every dollar you spend on purchased. Every 1,000 points can be redeemed to offset approximately 1 ton of emissions (the equivalent of taking a car off the road for 2,000 miles). Plus, now you can get 1,000 bonus points for signing up and 1,000 bonus points for signing up for paperless statements.
Direct Link

Salmon Nation Visa
Provided by ShoreBank Pacific, this Visa donates half the income it generates to "salmon nation". Salmon Nation is a collective in the region that is home to Pacific salmon spawning grounds.
Direct Link

Affinity Cards

These cards provide donations to the not for profit organizations that are represented on the face of each piece of plastic. If you run a Google search with "your favorite not for profit org" followed by "credit card'" chances are you will be able to track down a credit card that will finance some of their good work.

** Note: I didn't do an analysis of which one of these cards is best for YOU financially. Read the fine print for each offering. Remember, if you consistently carry a balance on your credit card you are better off finding a card that has a very low interest rate and donating some money to the charity of your choosing if you have funds left over at the end of the year.

*** Note: If you have a great card that you think should be added to the list, drop me an email and I will put it up on the website and give you credit for finding it.

Stimulus Check Payment Amounts - What You Need To Know

By now most people know that Pres. Bush's economic stimulus checks are soon to be on their way. But, when -- and more importantly how much?

I did a little research on the IRS website today and it says that checks are being mailed by the final two digits of their social security number in waves. Checks will first be mailed May 2nd and the chart below shows when you can expect to receive your check.

DIRECT DEPOSIT
Last two SSN digits
Payment will be transmitted:

00 through 20
May 2

21 through 75
May 9

76 through 99
May 16

PAPER CHECK
Last two SSN digits:
Payments will be mailed by:

00 through 09
May 16

10 through 18
May 23

19 through 25
May 30

26 through 38
June 6

39 through 51
June 13

52 through 63
June 20

64 through 75
June 27

76 through 87
July 4

88 through 99
July 11

The full chart can be found here. It should be noted that the IRS also says that people who filed late will receive their stimulus check approximately two weeks after their scheduled payment date.

If you have your 2007 1040 printed and handy, you can head over to the IRS Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator to determine how much you will be receiving. Generally, the checks will be $300 for individuals and $600 for married couples jointly filing, but this can be complicated when dependents are thrown into the mix.

Bigger Monitors = Greater Productivity

File this as one of those things that seems counterintuitive at first, but make sense after thinking things through. Researchers at the University of Utah have determined* that office workers that use larger monitors are more productive. The gains seem to increase as monitor sizes gets larger -- tapping out at 24 inches. What do you think? Do you find yourself more productive when you are working at a larger workstation. I don't find myself particularly less productive when working on my laptop, but could see how a larger monitor could lead to less fatigue when working in front of the screen all day.

*It is important to note that the University of Utah study was funded by monitor maker NEC.

Image by sw_wetmonkey @ Flickr

Full Story @ WSJ Business Tech Blog.