I apologize for the brief hiatus from posting. I have been really busy lately with a number of activities. I have been trying to increase the number of my sources of income. Here are some of the things I have been doing:

1. My normal day job – I usually work 50-60 hours a week and this is my primary income
2. In the Money – I started this blog as a way to learn more about personal finance but also for it to become another source of passive income in the future (from advertisements).
3. Real Estate – I do real estate part time. In the past, I have not been too busy with it, but recently, I have had a number of deals that I have been working on. It is good money on the side, but sometimes can be a headache. I hope to make an additional $15K from this source of income, although that seems like a long shot since I am quite a ways off from that.
4. Start-up Company – I recently became a partner in a start-up company. A couple friends of mine started a company a year ago. I thought it was a good idea and they needed help with it so I decided to invest and become a part of the team. This project has commanded a significant amount of my time as we are writing the business plan and doing research on our business model. I will reveal more about the company as we progress.

So those are some of my recent projects. Perhaps my ambition gets the best of me sometimes, but I do have a lofty goal of achieving financial freedom. Maybe these projects will bear fruit one day and help me to achieve my goal. What are some of your goals? Do you think you can increase your sources of income?

In previous posts, I discussed ways to negotiate, who holds the power in negotiations, and how to prepare for negotiations. In this post, I will delve into a couple hardball tactics that are commonly used in negotiations. Hardball tactics are strategies that can shift a negotiation in your favor given that the other party does not catch on.
The bogey tactic is a strategy that you employ when you are attempting to trade preferences on certain issues in integrative negotiations. In this strategy, when you find out one of the preferences of the other party, you give the impression that it is a much larger concession for you than it really is. You then attempt to trade this issue for another larger concession from the other party.
For example, in a hypothetical situation, you are interviewing for a job and hope to start in June, and while negotiating with the employer, you discover that they really need you to start in June. You could use this as an opportunity to use a bogey tactic, and give the employer the impression that you really wanted to take some time off after you graduate from college in May and try to trade the inconvenience to you for more vacation days. Obviously, this does not work all the time, so use caution with attempting to utilize hardball tactics.
Another tactic is the exploding offer. An exploding offer is an offer that has an extreme time limit. This strategy is used to take time away from the other player to explore other offers. If you take the previous situation of a job opportunity from the employer’s perspective, they could offer you a job, but tell you that the offer is only valid for one day. This way, you cannot interview with other companies and if you accept, you will not have had the chance to explore all your alternatives.
These negotiation tactics are a bit risky, but when executed correctly and in the right situation, they can significantly improve your outcome.

One of my friends recently told me about how he gets out of speeding tickets. He referred me to a website called World Law Direct, which had a huge section about ways to fight a speeding ticket. Since this seems like a very useful piece of information for many people, I thought I would summarize the details and highlight some of the key information in a series of three posts. I realize this doesn’t have too much to do with personal finance, but it can help you save money, so I’m going to write about it. Please keep in mind that I am only reiterating the information from the World Law Direct website and am not attempting to give legal advice.

Personally, I think the best way to get out of a speeding ticket is not to get one! I have never received a ticket for a moving traffic violation (*knock on wood*), but if I ever do, I’ll definitely be using these techniques.

When you are pulled over, the officer usually asks you a standard question like, “Do you know why I stopped you” or “Do you know how fast you were going?” The proper response to this is one that does not admit guilt. Always keep your answer short and do not try to make any excuses. A simple “No officer, I do not” or “I’m not really sure” is good enough. Hopefully, the officer will let you off with a warning, but if not, do not try to argue with him or plead your case as it will not help. Just keep a low profile.

As the officer writes your ticket in his car, start to take notice of your surroundings. This information is going to come into play when you build your case for court. When you cross examine the officer who gave you a ticket, you want to be able to discredit him by asking him questions about details he does not remember. Take note of the smallest details such as:
1. Make, model and license plate number of the officer’s car
2. Exact location and the distance between where you stopped and where the violation occurred
3. Every passenger in your car
4. The color of your shirt/coat
5. Any distinctive characteristics of your car (color, dents, etc)
6. If the officer talks into his radio (sometimes the officer who stops you is not the one who was running the radar)
7. The weather conditions (was it windy, rainy, sunny, hot, cold, etc)

It is important to remember that during the entire traffic stop, you should not do anything to make yourself memorable. Before he drives off, the officer will probably take notes on the back of his copy of the citation, but he most likely won’t remember the minor details that you have already taken note of. This is the beginning of your case and the next step is to enter your plea. I will investigate this in the next post.

*Disclaimer: I have no law expertise and am merely summarizing information from another website. This information does not constitute legal advice.

If you are fortunate enough to get a big fat tax return every year, what should you do with that money? It is common to feel like you have a lot of money all of a sudden and want to spend it. I highly recommend that you save this money unless you really need to use it for something. Most of the time, you were doing perfectly fine without the extra money from your tax refund. Just use this as an opportunity to save that money. Put it toward a savings goal whether it is some large expense you were saving up for, a retirement savings account, an emergency fund or general savings.

Personally, I put my tax return right into my savings account. It will go into my savings fund for a down-payment on a house. Every year, when I get my tax return direct deposited into my checking account, the first thing I do is transfer it right into my ING savings account. The general rule that I have set for myself has been that once money goes into that account, it cannot come out (unless for an emergency). Doing this will hopefully decrease the urge to spend the money on something you don’t need. Hopefully, you will e able to significantly boost your savings this year as a result of your tax refund!

Tomorrow is tax day and there are plenty of food specials. Here are some of the deals that I have heard of.

Cinnabon: Free classic bites from 5-8pm in every mall based Cinnabon.

Maggie Moo’s Ice Cream: free scoop of ice cream.

P.F. Changs: 15% off.

McCormick & Schmicks Seafood: $10.40 entrees along with drink specials (get it 10.40 for Form 1040! muahaha)

Chik-fil-A: Go on the 15th and hang on to your receipt. You can return before April 30th and get the same order for free.

McDonald’s: Buy 1 Big mac, get second one for 15 cents

TGI Fridays: get $5 gift card for spending $15-$25 and a $10 gift card for spending over $25.

For those in NY:
1. Energy Kitchen is giving out free lunch with purchase of beverage, 12-2pm.
2. Supermac (7th b/t 29th and 30th): 8-cent Mac n’ Cheese special tomorrow only between 12-7pm
3. Golosi (125 Park Ave. between 41st and 42nd streets) Buy 1 scoop of gelato, get one free, buy pizza (3-inch minimum), get same amount free. 11am-9pm

Do you know of any other specials? Let us know!