My wife and I recently upgraded our cell phones.  For about 7.5 years my wife and I had Sprint paying about $62/month total.  Over the years I looked into upgrading to a smartphone but just couldn’t justify going from $62/month to at least $130/month for 2 phones.  I figured we’d just wait until prices dropped a bit.  Additionally, if I ever switched to a smartphone I wanted everything to be unlimited.  I didn’t want to monitor my data, minutes and text messaging fearing additional charges.

After much research I found the best deal with MetroPCS.  For $80/month total (includes tax and fees), my wife and I get unlimited everything (minutes, data and text).  However, I got a smartphone, the LG Esteem and my wife got a regular phone, the LG Beacon.  My plan is $50/month and my wife’s plan is $40/month, however, since we are on a family plan, we each get a $5 discount which drops the price to $80/month.  The LG Esteem costs $249 after a $100 rebate and the LG Beacon costs $39 after a $30 rebate.

The Phone

I must admit that I’m extremely satisfied with the LG Esteem.  I absolutely love the phone and it has exceeded my expectations.  The screen is big at 4.3”, crisp and bright.  If you are looking for a small phone, this phone isn’t it.  I considered a smaller phone, but couldn’t resist the screen size.

The menus are well thought out and extremely easy to navigate.  I like the GPS navigation which is big improvement to our old Garmin GPS.  Voice recognition used in various software and features such as text messaging is very good.  The camera takes very good pictures and video quality is excellent.

The LG Esteem features 4G LTE connectivity, Android Platform 2.3 Ginerbread, 4.3” touch screen with damage resistant Gorilla Glass, 1.3 MP front-facing camera, 5 MP camera with 720p HD Video, HDMI Output and Dolby Audio.

The one disadvantage to the LG Esteem is battery life isn’t that great.  If you use the phone a lot you may have to recharge after about 5 to 7 hours.  If or when I have to change the battery I may consider purchasing an extended battery, however, it will make the phone bulkier.

Service

Fortunately, 4G service is available in my city so streaming video is flawless and browsing the web is fast.  MetroPCS 4G is only available in 14 cities which include Atlanta, Boston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Detroit, North Florida, Central Florida, South Florida, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, LA/Bakersfield, New York, Philadelphia, Sacramento and San Francisco.  If you don’t live in one of these cities or travel a lot, getting 4G service will be an issue, however, I’m certain over time additional cities will be added.

MetroPCS claims their phone service covers 90% of the U.S.  We recently drove from Atlanta to Chicago and never witnessed any loss of signal or dropped call.  Sound quality was always good anytime we made a phone call.  Although there was no 4G service outside Atlanta checking email and sending text messages was never slow.

Conclusion

So far I’m very happy with the LG Esteem and with MetroPCS’s service.  For $45/month, I get unlimited minutes, text, data, picture messaging, international text messaging, GPS navigation, 4G (if available) and much more.  You sure can’t beat the price.  The larger carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Sprint) charges much more for these services but have better 3G/4G coverage than MetroPCS.   However to me, the savings more than offset this fact.

The downside to the LG Esteem is battery life and the availability of 4G in limited markets.  However, if you are fortunate to live in a city where 4G is offered and don’t travel too much, this is a non-issue.  If 4G isn’t available, you can always connect to Wi-Fi to get similar 4G speeds.

Overall, I highly recommend MetroPCS and the LG Esteem.  You won’t be disappointed.

One last thing, overall, my wife is very pleased with the LG Beacon and her service as well.  

Update (Added 2-5-2012):  Due to some of the comments below about MetroPCS’s 4G Service, I made the quick video below  highlighting the 4G Service in the Atlanta area.  (Sorry about the audio!)

Identity theft can be frightening and cause numerous problems.  It can ruin your credit; where it’s up to you to prove there is a problem and to fix the problem.   After discovering there is problem, you have to contact the credit companies and prove to them that you didn’t create the charges.  

Prevention of identity theft is the best way to prevent identity theft.  To do this you must protect yourself so your sensitive information isn’t easily accessible.  Do not leave credit card statements, bank account number or other types of sensitive information laying around for people to see.  Make it a habit to shred document before throwing them away.  Sensitive information that you need to keep needs to be locked away.

Important documents with personal and sensitive information are often sent via the mail which is vulnerable to theft.  To reduce using mail, have your statements only accessible online via secured websites and pay your bills online. You can also use services such as IdentityHawk for identity theft protection.

Below is a list of additional things you can do to prevent identity theft protection.

• Pay your bills online.  This decreases the chance that paper bills or statements end up where others can easily find them.
• Look over all your statements carefully.
• Create secure passwords and guard them well.
• Protect your social security number.
• Check through all mail – even mail that seems like junk mail.  It could be from an account opened by someone else.
• Decrease the amount of unsolicited credit card offers that come in the mail by visiting optoutprescreen.com and contacting the Direct Marketing Association to remove your name from mailing lists.  Shred the solicitations you do receive before throwing them out.
• If possible, use a post office box, and do not put bill payments and checks in an unlocked mailbox.  
• Have someone you trust pick up your mail when you are away.
• Do not give out your credit card number.
• Shred important documents containing your personal information.

If you are a victim of identity theft, here are several ways to deal with it:

• Cancel any accounts that you think have been compromised.  This includes checking accounts.
• Notify the credit reporting bureaus.  You only have to contact one, and they will contact the rest.
• Make a report to the police.
• Notify the post office.
• Contact the Federal Trade Commission.
• Contact the Social Security Administration.
• Make sure all of your accounts have passwords.
• Place an alert on your credit report – an extended one is best, as it last for 7 years.
• Keep good records.

The Affiliate’s Creed

“This is my computer. There are many like it but this one is mine. My computer is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. Without me, my computer is useless. Without my computer I am useless. I must make my computer true. I must use my computer better than any other affiliate who is trying to make more money than me. I must out-do them before they out-do me. I will, before God I swear this creed: my computer and I are money-makers in the affiliate world, we are the masters of our offers, we are the creators of wealth. So be it, until there is no better affiliate, but me! Amen.“

I hope you enjoyed the video above.  It’s the launch of my official entry into the  Shoemoney Affiliate Summit West Contest. I thought the video would be very amusing.  The idea came to me after I read about Shoemoney’s ASW contest.  I quickly began to work on it and although it’s not Hollywood studio material, I’m happy with the outcome.  The original video clip is  “The Rifleman’s Creed” from the movie “Full Metal Jacket”.

A Little about Me

My name is Patrick; I’m a husband, a father and an affiliate marketer.  I’ve been trying to make significant money online for a few years with some successes and too many failures to count.  I’ve been an affiliate marketer who has always been inspired by reading blog’s such as Shoemoney, John Chow and Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income.   I’ve definitely profited from the invaluable information provided by these blogs.

I’ve had many frustrations which you can read about here and had a home run or two, you can read here.  However, I’ve pretty much struggled over the years to maintain consistency and to take my business to the next level.

My Main Reasons for Wanting to Attend Affiliate Summit West

Unfortunately, making money in affiliate marketing has never been consistent for me and I realize I have a lot more to learn.  Additionally, I have found networking with people within the affiliate marketing industry very challenging at times.  Attending Affiliate Summit West would help with these limitations, especially having the opportunity to network with the legendary, Jeremy Schoemaker!

I look forward to seeing who the winner of the ASW Shoemoney contest is and sincerely hope it’s me!

I would love to hear some feedback below about the video!  

Thank you for visiting my blog.

If you have a small business and want bookkeeping software to automate your accounting activities, you should consider an online service at Outright.com. With Outright there is not need to have a pile of paper laying around your office because everything will be digitally in one location online where you can access it at anytime, anywhere in the world as long as you have Internet access.  

Outright will help you organize your credit cards, bank, eBay, PayPal Etsy and ecommerce accounts in one single place.  You can also use Outright to track your sales, expenses and see exactly how your business is performing.  At tax time you will be prepared to quickly and easily complete your taxes with detailed reports using this service.  

There is no software to setup because everything is done online. You can import data from your existing accounts into Outright.   The service offers a free account that never expires and a paid account that is $9.95 per month.

See video below of Outright Product Review

Let’s face it, the majority of us conduct business on the Internet almost everyday.  From shopping, entertainment, banking, research, etc., we all use the Internet.  Unfortunately, there are always criminals in cyberspace trying to steel your identity that will ultimately affect your finances and credit score. To determine if your identity has been compromised it’s always a good idea to get a free credit score to review your credit information. 

One way cyber criminals can steal your identity online is by using a technique called “phishing” to steal your personal information such as username / passwords, credit card information, social security number, date of birth, etc.

Phishing websites are fake websites that look like real websites.  Most people visit phishing sites by clicking links in their email.  As an example, they may get an email that seems to be from their bank telling them they need to log into to fix a problem.  They click on the link in the email and it brings them to a fake website.  They unsuspectingly enter their username and password and instantly this information is sent to a criminal who can use it cause serious harm.

So how do you avoid ever visiting phishing website?  Fortunately, it’s not too hard to prevent visiting phishing websites, but you must always be alert whenever on the Internet.  For one, never visit websites such as your bank by clicking on links within an email.  You should always visit by your saved bookmark, major search engines or typing the address directly into your browser address bar.  Additionally, if you ever want to click on a link in an email, you can first view the real link address in your browser address bar.  For example, an email may contain a link stating www.bankofamerica.com; however, the link goes to wwwbankofamerica.steal.com.  Fortunately, the major browsers and anti-virus program can alert you whenever visiting a phishing website but they don’t always catch every phishing site.

Never give your personal information to anyone whenever visiting forums, using email, using public Wi-Fi or even instant messaging with friends or family.  This information is not secure and criminals can easily intercept your information.

Whenever your visit a website and have to enter personal information make sure the website is using encryption to transfer your information.  To determine if the website is secure with encryption, check for the closed lock icon in the browser address bar.  If no closed clock icon is available, the website isn’t secure and when you transfer information, your information can be intercepted by criminals.  See example below with green closed lock in Google Chrome browser address bar.

Finally, always use strong passwords using a combination of letter, numbers, symbols and different letter case.  Periodically, you may want to change your passwords especially for websites that are extremely important to you, such as your bank. 

Remember you can always get a freescore online to make certain your identity hasn’t been compromised.

How time flies.  Here is my number 6 update of my Lending Club Account Performance.  The last update was on May 13, 2011 about 6 months ago.

It’s amazing that it’s been over 2 years since I opened my account with Lending Club.  It feels like only a year.  

Since opening my account with Lending Club in August of 2009 my account has profited $7,639.23 in interest, however, about $1,000 of this is bonus paid to open the account and to add more funds.   The net annualized return is 7.37% which beats any CD in today’s market.

I’ve invested a total $50,000.  I initially opened the account with $10,000, and then added another $20,000 because Lending Club was paying a 1% bonus to add the additional funds.  A few months later I added another $20,000 because Lending Club offered a 2% bonus.  (Note: Lending Club is currently offering a 2% Cash Bonus on your initial investment.)

Within the last 6 months an additional $429 has been charged off.  Currently, there is $1,065 late ($310 late 16-30 days, $755 late 31-125 days) and $40 in default, so some of this money will eventually be charged off as well.  This loss is a part of the game of lending money directly to individuals via unsecured loans.  Unfortunately, some people will default; however, the interest from paying borrowers “should” cover the losses.

Below is a screen-shot of my account as of 11/9/11.

Related Articles:

• My Lending Club Account Performance Update 5
• My Lending Club Account Performance Update 4
• My Lending Club Account Performance Update 3
• My Lending Club Account Performance Update 2
• My Lending Club Account Performance, So Far, So Good (Update 1)
• Earn a High Interest Rate with Lending Club P2P Loans
• Need a Loan? Get a Low Interest Loan from Lending Club
• Social Lending Networks are Booming
• Lending Club Offering $25 to New Customers in September and a Change to
  win $2,500

If you are interested in investing in Lending Club now is a great time because they are offering a 2% Cash Bonus on your initial investments.  Good luck!

Almost everyday the U.S. government confiscates a ton of assets from businesses and individuals  for a variety of reasons and sells these assets online and via auctions.  You can locate online these auctions or find listings for live auctions at GovSales.gov. The online auctions allow bidding on items over a period of time, normally 7 days. The GovSales.gov web site also advertises when live auctions take place across the country. Live auctions are regularly scheduled and are open to the public.

You can find the following items for sale by the U.S. government:

Below is a brief video: Introduction to GovSales.gov

For more information visit GovSales.gov