Who foots this bill?

As I've noted a few times in My Economic Stimulus, the IRS is quite busy fixing mistakes that sprung from the Economic Stimulus Plan of 2008.

Hard to believe there have been so many issues. Here's the latest about taxpayers who received their stimulus money, but not their kids' $300. An additional 230,000 checks will be mailed in July. So let me do some quick figuring: 230,000 multiplied by the now 42 cents for a first-class stamp. Wait, the IRS probably qualifies for bulk-rate postage. Well, to quote Mike Rowe on the episode of Dirty Jobs I watched last night, "that's a lot."

Of course, I really shouldn't give the IRS a hard time. First of all, I already got my $600. Second, I too manage projects and know that even the easy ones (wait, especially the easy ones!) have screw ups.

Hoping to put together a pie chart showing the balance of $600 after I've invested some of it. More info to come ... Sphere: Related Content

Stimulus checks diverted -- on purpose!

Nearly $2 million worth of economic stimulus checks have been diverted, and this time, it's no mistake.

According to this USA Today story, the U.S. Treasury Department intercepted a whole lot of checks from folks who haven't paid child support, student loans and overdue taxes. The money is going to agencies (and eventually individuals) who have no doubt gone too long without the money they are due.

Taxpayers who didn't get a their checks are being notified in letters, the article states. Of course, they still get to keep livin' the life of a deadbeat parent or overdue-bill havin' U.S. citizen.

Yet another reminder to keep my economic stimulus going and get my finances in order. I don't want someone else to get to do it for me. Sphere: Related Content

Blogging as therapy

Found a little tidbit about blogging itself in this week's Newsweek. So this financial experiment is actually therapy? Perhaps.

Here's a few blogs I started tracking recently:

49ccscooterdude.com - a commuting adventure
This might hurt Sphere: Related Content

Verified (and funded)

No clown blowing up balloons behind me. No BlackBerry blowing up. No talking baby. God, I love those eTrade commercials!

1. But after a series of steps, Scottrade greenlighted the investing part of my economic stimulus. The verification process, done through Scottrade's tool called MoneyDirect, deposited two odd amounts into my bank account.
   
2. I confirmed the amounts.
   
3. Scottrade validated me. (Scottrade is taking back the amounts now as its last step of the verification process. Not that I could have done much with the pennies since both amounts totaled less than a buck.)

After that, funding the account took what seemed like maybe 2 minutes. Three tops. Lesson here: Scottrade don't mess around when it's time for me to give them my money. My $600 is in Scottrade's hands now.

All I have to do is a pick some stocks and I'll officially be IN. Maybe then I'll get my own clown.

P.S. Speaking of babies, my friend Delphine welcomed a baby boy named Rocco on Saturday. She and her husband Norm are already grooming him to be the Mets' first Belgian-Italian shortstop. Sphere: Related Content

Verificiation before validation

Scottrade needs to verify my regular bank account that I plan to use to fund my Scottrade account. Upon verification, the investing part of my economic stimulus will finally be realized. And then I will feel validated!

No biggie. TD Ameritrade did the same thing when I opened my Save Yourself account.

But Scottrade gives you the option to let Scottrade go into my bank account with my password and verify the routing #/me immediately. This stopped me in my tracks.

WHAT?

With all the warnings to NEVER give out passwords, I did not feel comfortable with this. TD Ameritrade didn't need a password. Why does Scottrade? So I called Scottrade for the umpteenth time. Mike from the McMurray, Pa., office told me about the alternate verification method which only needs the routing and account numbers. This could take 2-3 days. My security is worth that much.

See, it pays to ask a few (thousand) follow-up questions. Sphere: Related Content

Over-stimulated

Twice is nice, but hardly worth the price.

Some folks have received more than one stimulus check! Not me. Maybe the government REALLY, REALLY thinks those people are such good shoppers and rewarded them with another $600 to further stimulate the economy.

Whatever the case, experts also say not to cash both since the IRS will discover its mistake sooner or later. This, and the issue of people receiving other peoples' checks, is sure to keep the IRS troubleshooters in business.

P.S. Still working on the kinks with Scottrade. My account is up and running. Just working on funding it. A good tip for folks doing the same? Sign up for paperless balance alerts and trade confirmations. Otherwise, this broker will charge you $1 and $2 a pop! Sphere: Related Content

It's in the mail

I finally mailed my application to Scottrade for an online account.

That's right -- mailed. As in USPS. Snail mail. The Slowskys.

In this day and age when applying online, emailing info and faxing documentation are the status quo, none of these options worked. Is this a sign? Seriously! There was a security issue online. I answered an open-ended question incorrectly about my monthly mortgage payment. Scottrade sent me the application in the mail instead.

I procrastinated a bit. Scottrade obviously was in no rush to get my account up and running. So I wasn't either. But you better believe I've already receive 2 more marketing pieces in the mail. I'm on the company's list already and I'm not even a satisfied client!

Filled out the application Friday night while waiting for Outback's Carside To Go service. The application was super easy and fast. Plus, it did not require the details that hosed me on the online application.

I went to fax it on Monday. The fax would not go through. The previous fax NOT having a thing to do with my economic stimulus? No problem. The Scottrade stuff? No can do. Not after 3 tries. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks fax machines suck.

So I dipped into my savings to pay for stamps and mailed the mother. Now I sit and wait to see if I'm accepted much like a college ap. If they take too long, I'll be hooking up with eTrade or TD Ameritrade toute de suite. Sphere: Related Content