Generic V.S. Name Brand Drugs – Which work better?

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Generic V.S. Brand Name drugs - Which works best?
Do brand name drugs work better or faster than generic drugs? Is there enough difference between the two types of drugs to justify the extra cost? The truth is, no, generic drugs work just as effectively as name brand drugs. Tylenol works just as good as the cheap store brand acetaminophen in clinical tests by the FDA.

From FDA.gov

What are generic drugs?
A generic drug is a copy that is the same as a brand-name drug in dosage, safety, strength, how it is taken, quality, performance and intended use.

Are generic drugs as strong as brand-name drugs?
Yes. FDA requires generic drugs to have the same quality, strength, purity and stability as brand-name drugs.

Do generic drugs take longer to work in the body?
No. Generic drugs work in the same way and in the same amount of time as brand-name drugs.

Why are generic drugs less expensive?
Generic drugs are less expensive because generic manufacturers don’t have the investment costs of the developer of a new drug.

But what about a placebo effect? Do placebos really work? Placebos rely on the power of the mind to achieve the desired result. Some placebos are sugar pills and they still work. With that in mind, it would be possible for someone to react differently to the same drug if one drug is marketed differently. For those who hold a high value on brands, marketing, and hype, paying more will actually help them more.

For the rest of us, we’ll pay 20-50% less knowing we’re getting the same thing for less. And that is always a good feeling :) .

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Automatic Deal Finding Machines

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Deal Finding Machine

Finding exactly what you want at a killer price is easier than ever. These deal finding machines will locate good deals and report back automatically. The whole process is painless, easy, and the returns are worth it.

Step 1 – Daily Deal Websites
There are websites that collect deals. Each day there are new deals. If you are looking for something specific these sites might not have you you’re looking for today. As time goes on there’s a good chance you’ll find what you’re looking for. These are the places I go to find deals but there are probably more. If you know of any let me know in the comments.

  • Amazon’s Gold Box
    Daily specials offered with limited inventory and limited time. You must act quickly to catch these deals.

    Website: http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/
    RSS Feed: http://rssfeeds.s3.amazonaws.com/goldbox

  • Deals2Buy
    This site collects deals from Dell, Apple, Buy.com, Overstock, Circuit City, and more. Their deals last 1-3 days. You’ll find cameras, computers, home decor, jewelry, and other items listed daily.

    Website: http://deals2buy.com/
    RSS Feed: http://deals2buy.com/rssgen/alldeals.xml

  • SteepandCheap
    For the outdoor enthusiasts wanting new gear without paying big bucks. Find clothing, climbing, hiking, cycling, and camping gear everyday. This site is run by Backcountry.com so the gear rocks.

    Website: http://www.steepandcheap.com/
    RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SteepandCheap

  • Craigslist
    You’ll find some of the best deals of your life on craigslist. You’ll have to be patient and quick to get the cream of the crop. There is a whole post dedicated to finding deals using craigslist RSS feeds.

    Website: http://craigslist.org/
    RSS Feed: Find your [State][City][Searchterm] and click on the RSS button once you’ve arrived. The post explains it in more detail.


Step 2 – Filter Your Feeds
This step will do the heavy lifting for you. Instead of going to each site everyday your filter will find the keywords you define. When it finds the item you want it will report back.

There are three popular RSS feed filtering sites. You will enter the RSS feed address and your desired keywords. The filter will give you a new RSS feed address which will only send a report when the keywords are triggered.


Note: Reporting speed is very important when getting a good deal. These might need to be tested for speed. I’ll set up a test to find the quickest RSS filter. If someone knows the fastest filter let me know.

Step 3 – Add the new RSS address to your feed aggregator
Feed aggregators collect RSS and Atom feeds from blogs, news sites, and other places that syndicate their data. In this case we’ll be using an aggregator to collect our filtered feeds. This is where the deals will show up.

If you have a Google account you can simply use Google Reader or Google’s custom homepage as your reader. The Google homepage option is nice because you’ll see your deals more often. For the time sensitive deals this is really important. The downside to Google’s options is that it doesn’t update as quickly as other options. If you’re looking for a craigslist deal you might need to get a feed reader that updates every 30 minutes or less.

Web Based Readers

  • Google Reader – The reader can be added to your iGoogle homepage too
  • Google Homepage – Click on “add stuff” then click on “add Feed or gadgets”
  • PageFlakes – Much like Google’s homepage

Software Based Readers (cross platform)

Firefox Add-ons


Bonus Tips
Priceprotectr.com has deal alert system but no RSS feed, only email. To sign up for email alerts from 120 retailers click here.

For those hard to find items (Wii, Kindles, etc) Buylatr.com has a plugin for Firefox. It allows you to buy an item as soon as it comes in stock at Amazon.

If email is more your thing try using Yahoo Pipes to send you custom emails. The idea is the same as using RSS except you get emails instead.

Summary
Now that you’ve set up your Automatic Deal Finding Machine sit back and relax. You will be buying your items for less in no time!

 

Dilbert's One Page Checklist of Personal Finance

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Dilbert’s One Page List of Personal Finance

Scott Adam’s book ‘Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel ‘ is pretty darn funny. If you want to learn how you, your boss, and everyone you know is a weasel this book will be enlightening.

Most of the book is dedicated to work related ‘weaseldom’ but there are some parts talking about life in general. He discusses financial advisers and includes some interesting insights to personal finance. The main point being that everything you pay a personal finance adviser for could be written on a single page. A financial adviser will cringe to see you walk into their office holding their entire body of knowledge on a single sheet of paper. Of course Scott Adam’s is much better at the delivery and I probably just butchered the joke. At any rate it’s worth the time to read it.


Dilbert’s One Page Personal Finance List

  • Make a will
  • Pay off your credit card balance
  • Get Term Life insurance instead of Whole Life Insurance if you have a family to support.
  • Fund your company’s 401K to the max
  • Fund your ROTH IRA to the max
  • Buy a house if you can afford it and will live in it
  • Put 6 Months of living expenses in a money market account
  • Take all the extra money and invest 70% in a stock index fund
  • Take 30% of the money and put it in a Bond fund through a discount broker
  • Don’t touch your money until you retire
  • If you are doing anything outside the things listed here hire a Fee Based Financial adviser and not someone working off commision.

He concludes that anything outside this list is worse. Want to invest in Managed mutual funds, its worse. Want to buy individual stocks, its worse.

The list is pretty good. For the most part it’s very hard to argue with any of the points. If you think about all the books that have been written on the subject it makes this list even better.

Listen to Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel from Amazon

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PriceProtectr.com – Your friend for getting the best prices

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PriceProtectr.com Logo

Most stores have a ‘price protection’ policy. If a product you just purchased drops in the next 30, 60, or 90 days you get the difference if you call them on it. For larger items this might not be too big of a challenge. But if you tracked all your purchases it would turn into a full time job. This is where PriceProtectr.com comes in. Simply tell them what you purchased and they will monitor their network of retailers for any price reduction. Once a price changes they will automatically send you an alert. Using their simple method of tracking prices PriceProtectr has protected over $22 million in purchases

There are three ways to save using PriceProtectr:

  • Submit the product page URL
  • email alerts
  • Check for coupons and deals
  • Toolbar for Firefox – Automatic ratings, coupons, and one click price monitoring

The service is free, easy, and automatic. Visit PriceProtectr.com

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How much is $100 worth in the future

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What is your money worth in the future

If you spent $100 on something silly (e.g. new phone, lattes, fast food) how much is that really worth in the future. Thirty years from now what could have you purchased?

Assume you put your money in the stock market with an average 12% annual return. Your money is also growing tax free using compound interest.

In 10 years that $100 would be worth $310
In 20 years that $100 would be worth $964
In 30 years that $100 would be worth $2,995
In 40 years that $100 would be worth $9,305
In 50 years that $100 would be worth $28,900

If you want to calculate what $10 would be in the future just move the decimal to the left one digit. To see what $1,000 would be move the decimal to the right one digit and add a zero.

Devaluation of the Dollar and Inflation :(
Before we get carried away lets make sure we take into account inflation and the devaluation of the dollar. Using the Bureau of Labor Statatics Calculator we find that the money has much less buying power as it did in the old days. For example:

10 years from now $310 would only be worth $233
20 years from now $964 would only be worth $526
30 years from now $2,995 would only be worth $901
40 years from now $9,305 would only be worth $1,494
50 years from now $28,900 would only be worth $3,855

While it’s next to impossible to predict exactly the rate of inflation in the future these numbers give a ‘ball park’ figure. Using the calculator backwards I entered my compound growth amount in the first box with 2008 as the year. I set the second box back 10, 20, or 50 years. Pressing ‘calculate’ shows what $100 would be worth after inflation adjustments over the select number of years.

Talking about inflation always depresses me. The fact the it could take $28,900 and turn it into $3,855 is just sad. But the good news is that if you grew your investment in a tax sheltered IRA you get to keep every penny of that investment.

Inflation Calculator


Compound Interest Calculator

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You are what you spend, not what you make

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consumption-vs-income.jpg
This article by the New York Times explains why ‘consumption’ not ‘income’ is the best indicator of wealth. The article explains that the top fifth makes 15 times more income than the bottom fifth. But when compared using consumption as the criteria of wealth the upper rich only consume four times that of the bottom fifth. The article indicates that new technologies become cheap quicker than in times past. Global trade lowers input costs and maximizes efficiencies for each country involved. With recession looming the author warns that protectionist measures will actually drive up the cost of everyday goods and leave the poor even poorer.

A really cool graph
The article makes an interesting point and the chart they attached is even more interesting. Some of the most interesting observations from the chart are:

  • The rich spend much more on education than the poor do. The poor don’t even register on the chart for their educational spending.
  • The rich spend a considerable amount of their income on taxes and savings. The poor actually have negative savings.
  • New products are only taking 15 years to hit 80% market saturation instead of 50-70 years required in the past.
  • Multiple items per household is much more common. Multiple cars, televisions, computers would be unheard of 50 years ago.
  • The rich donate more of their income to charities than the poor or middle class. Each class donated poor 5.8%, middle class 6.3%, and the rich 10%.


Note: The problem with this chart is that it doesn’t distinguish age groups. The “poor” in the study make up a large number of retired people. These people are drawing down on past savings and wouldn’t be investing in education, thus skewing the numbers. Even with that consideration many of the observations hold true. The middle class saves much less, spends more on vehicles, are less charitable, and invest less in education than do rich folks. I can’t help but think of the lessons in Rich Dad Poor Dad when I see a study like this.

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Investing for Dummies – Eric Tyson

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Investing for Dummies Book Review

I always get a kick out of these ‘for Dummies’ book titles. If they used another derogatory term instead of ‘dummies ‘do you think they’d sell any books? Some alternative titles might read ‘Investing for complete idiots’ or ‘Investing for the mildly retarded…please stop drooling on the book and pay for it’. Like or hate the title of this book Investing for Dummies it is actually pretty good.

Main Themes & Topics
Mutual Funds
Stock & Bond Investing
Money Market accounts V.S. FDIC insured savings accounts
Real Estate
Entrepreneurial Start-up businesses
T-Bills and Municipal Bonds
Tax Considerations

Surprises
One thing Eric spends a good deal of time on is starting your own business. Most investment books don’t include this as an option. As an entrepreneur at heart I really enjoyed this part of the book. He provides a checklist of 10 characteristic an entrepreneur must have to be successful. While starting your own business is an exciting investment opportunity I think Micheal Gerber’s points on entrepreneurial start-ups should be considered. Investing for Dummies treats all businesses as the same and they just aren’t. You’ll need to read Micheal Gerber’s eMyth Manager book to understand what I’m saying.

Summary
This book is very good at giving a birds-eye-view on the world of investing and doesn’t go into too much depth. This is the book’s strength as well as the book’s weakness. It doesn’t teach you all the terms you’ll need to know in each of the subject. Instead it defines the key concepts and strategic considerations. It gives a rookie investor an idea of what to expect with different investment vehicles. If you’ve saved up some money to invest but don’t know where to start, this is the book for you!

Buy Investing for Dummies on Amazon

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Free Credit Report from the Government

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Stack of credit reports

Free Credit Report from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion

This might be old news for some but for others it might be new. You can get a free credit report from each of the three credit reporting bureaus each year. Every twelve months Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion will give you a free credit report. The only downside is that you don’t get your actual score. You only get the report. The report will show you all your open accounts, payment history, and much more. The only thing it won’t tell you is the actual number of your credit score. Beyond using it for bragging rights or knowing where you are on on the credit score scale the number isn’t all that useful.

If you want to monitor your credit you can spread out each report and pull one every four months. By spreading out the time you pull the reports you can see any changes that are out of place. So, in January you’ll get your report from Experian. In May you’ll get it from Equifax. In September you’ll get it from TransUnion. When January comes around again your year waiting period will have passed with Experian and you can apply again. If you want email reminders sent to you try LetterMeLater.com. They will send you emails in the future so you won’t forget.

Please visit www.annualcreditreport.com to get started.

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How much interest do you pay on different APRs per month

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Every drop counts when finding the flow of your money
Every drop counts when building residual income. Your finances are like a bucket with water coming in as your income and water leaking out as expenses. This is an exercise in examining the holes in your bucket.

While monthly interest costs is a simple calculation it is nice to know what your debt is costing each month. Lately I’ve been obsessed with automatic monthly income or expenses. Trying to cut back on every monthly expense and trying to increase monthly residual income is a challenge. What if I paid an extra $1,000 on my credit card? How much would that increase my net monthly income?

While $10 a month doesn’t sound like much savings it all adds up quick. If you have $10,000 in credit card debt you’d be paying $100 a month just in interest fees. Fighting to get back $10 a month in residual income is well worth it.


Cost of $1,000 debt every month

5% APR costs $4.17 per month
6% APR costs $5.00 per month
7% APR costs $5.83 per month
8% APR costs $6.67 per month
9% APR costs $7.50 per month
10% APR costs $8.33 per month
11% APR costs $9.17 per month
12% APR costs $10.00 per month
13% APR costs $10.83 per month
14% APR costs $11.67 per month
15% APR costs $12.50 per month
16% APR costs $13.33 per month
17% APR costs $14.17 per month
18% APR costs $15.00 per month
19% APR costs $15.83 per month
20% APR costs $16.67 per month
21% APR costs $17.50 per month
22% APR costs $18.33 per month

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