Saving money Archives

How young is too young for a credit card?

Dave Farquhar Saving money June 20, 2011April 15, 20171990s, discipline, Discover Card, interest rates, minimum payment, Missouri

MSNBC columnist (and one of my former college instructors) Bob Sullivan asked an interesting question last week. How young is too young for a credit card?

I think the credit industry used to draw the line somewhere around age 19 or 20. But things changed a lot in the 1990s.
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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Analysis: Samsung “green” memory

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Saving money June 19, 2011June 19, 2011amd, Blade, intel, kingston, KWH, Micro Center, Missouri, samsung

I was at Micro Center today, picking up CD jewel cases and USB flash memory and a cheap USB game pad. And to buy a little extra time–I had one son with me and the other was home napping–I wandered around. In the memory aisle, I spotted some Samsung “green” memory. Manufactured with a 40nm process instead of the usual 60nm process, the modules are 2/3 the size of conventional modules, run cooler, and use up to 47% less power.

Is it worth paying extra for? As always, it depends.

Dave Farquhar

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How to decide if a computer upgrade will pay for itself in power savings

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Saving money June 15, 2011April 17, 2017amd, intel, Intel Atom, KWH, Micro Center, Missouri, phenom, power savings

I occasionally read an offhand comment where someone says he or she just bought a new computer, and the new computer is so much more power efficient than the old one, it’s going to pay for itself.

I wonder if they did the math, or if that’s what the salesperson told them. Because while I can see circumstances where that assertion would be true, but it typically would involve extremes, like replacing an aged Pentium 4 computer with, well, a netbook. They probably didn’t do that.

Part of the reason I got into computers professionally was because I was tired of hearing lies from salespeople and technicians. So let’s just take a look at this claim.
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Dave Farquhar

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Shame on you, Dave, if you run out of money in retirement

Dave Farquhar Saving money May 19, 2011May 20, 2011

My employer got bought out, so all of us in our office are in-processing with our new corporate overlords. When this happens–yes, something similar has happened before–I end up giving a lot of 401(k) advice.

Yesterday I ran a 401(k) projection for one coworker, and we talked about it again at the end of the day today.

Dave Farquhar

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LED is the future, but I don’t think it’s here yet

Dave Farquhar Saving money May 16, 2011July 14, 2017CFL, cfls, incandescent bulbs, led bulbs, mizzou

San Jose Mercury News columnist (and fellow Mizzou alumnus) Troy Wolverton has been testing LED bulbs. His conclusion: The quality of light is good, prices will continue to fall and efficiency will continue to improve, so they’re the future, but the future isn’t here yet. Update: I think it is now.

I’m always trying to wring the last bit of value out of my utility bill dollars, so I’ve been watching this closely. And I agree.
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Dave Farquhar

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How to save a fortune on cables

Dave Farquhar Saving money May 14, 2011November 28, 2018pc magazine

If you’ve wondered about buying HDMI cables at monoprice.com rather than buying expensive cables at retail, PC Magazine did some testing, and came to a conclusion: they don’t matter.
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Dave Farquhar

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Don’t use gadget buyback programs

Dave Farquhar Saving money May 13, 2011April 15, 2017capacitors, dell, Dell Inspiron, nvidia, spyware

MSNBC consumer reporter Bob Sullivan does a thorough analysis of how gadget buy-back programs work, and why you shouldn’t use them.

There’s no need for me to rehash everything that’s wrong with them, because Bob covered all those bases admirably. I’ll just run through his hypothetical scenario and tell you what you should do instead.
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Dave Farquhar

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An easy change to improve your city gas mileage by six percent

Dave Farquhar Saving money April 20, 2011April 15, 2017Advance Auto Parts, Japan

Would you like to improve your gas mileage in stop-and-go traffic by five or six percent without spending any money and without changing what you drive?

Dave Farquhar

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Four ways to save a little money on $4 gas

Dave Farquhar Saving money April 13, 2011November 24, 2020costco

So gas prices jumped to about $4 per gallon this week. I have a pretty long commute, so that hurts. It also means I stay on top of ways to keep my fuel prices as low as I can.
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Dave Farquhar

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Color laser vs. inkjet: The hidden factor

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Saving money February 22, 2011November 3, 2025

Ars Technica did a quick and dirty study on whether inkjets or lasers are more cost effective for color printing and came down in favor of the inkjet. The math works in their color laser vs. inkjet battle, but it misses something non-trivial. Ink cartridges dry out. Toner cartridges don’t.

Here’s why I use and recommend laser printers for color printing.
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Dave Farquhar

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