New Journey with a Social API SaaS

Wow,  I can't believe I found my old financial site from 15 years ago on blogspot. Back in the day, 15 years ago, the finances-in-public, kinda like today's "build-in-public", was all the rage. But even build in public for startups is changing.

This certainly have changed - now have a family, but still in NYC. Started a few business, with the current one a social media API business that allows SaaS platforms to post their user's content to their user's social networks - called Ayrshare. For example, a creator platform can allow their users to post to Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram with a click of a button and then get back analytic insights such as followers, clicks, and views.

Here are some fun links if you want to integrate with the social networks via an API:

• Our social api service.
• How to use the Facebook API.
• How to use the TikTok API.
• How to use the Instagram API.
• How to use the LinkedIn API.
• How to use the Twitter API.
• How to use the YouTube API.

If you have any questions let me know.

Moving to Wordpress

I'm moving the site to Wordpress.  I got tired of the pain of using eBlogger and the move to Wordpress only took a single click!

Click here to see the new site.

Raising the Conforming Mortgage Loan Amount in New York City

Have you heard that they are raising the conforming mortgage limit from $415,000 (depending upon the area you live in)?  In New York the new conforming limit will be: $729,750!  I can't tell you how excited I was to heard that.  I recently bought an apartment in Manhattan and had to get a Jumbo Mortgage since prices here are so inflated (i.e. good luck finding a place less than $500K).  

Looking at the rates on Wells Fargo's Mortgage Rate Site there is a full percentage point difference between the conforming and jumbo loans.  Money in the bank, baby!

Here's where reality sets in and the saying "no such things as a free lunch" comes into play.  It seems that there is an extra "fee" being charge for the extra risk of these larger loans.  The extra fee essentially wipes out the savings of having a conforming loan.

Guess I won't be refinancing anytime soon.

Here is an article explaining more. 

Also, here is what my mortgage broker said when I asked him (this is from a few weeks ago, so the rates aren't up-to-date): 

The new "High Balance Conforming Program" is up and running on 30 Year Fixed mortgages, but not as attractive as we had hoped. The 10/1 Arm is "out" as no investor is really buying Arm's at the moment (they are shelled shocked) so pricing is really quite bad. The 30 Year Fixed is by far the most attractively priced from a historical perspective.
 
Regular Jumbo 30 Year Today is about 6.875% at Zero points
New High Balance Conforming 30 Year is about 6.625% at Zero points.

Bank of America (BAC)

Today at work I was in an all day training session.  Now I mostly paid attention to what was going on (Project Management application usage), but to keep my self awake I researched and almost pulled the trigger on buying 200 shares of Bank of America (BAC).  Today's close was at $34.73.

BAC has been beaten down just like all of the other retail bank stocks (I'm considering them in a different at category than financial companies such as Goldman Sachs).  However, they seems to be on much stronger footing than their competitors.  Look at Citi and Wachovia.  BAC recently bought Countrywide (meaning they had the funds, though the debate is still out on if they should have).  Can you imagine those two companies buying Countrywide as BAC did?

Another interesting point is the dividend, right now at around 7.00%.  That is amazing!  While there certainly is volatility with the stock, you have a nice buffer with such a rich dividend (and I and many other talking heads don't believe they will lower it as Citi did).  

One thing that does concern me a bit are the offering of Preferred Shares of BAC.  Citi was doing it to raise capital, and we all know why.  BAC maybe just trying to also raise capital, but in a less desperate way.

I believe that BAC has a while to go before heading on the upswing.  But on the upswing it will go.  We'll see what tomorrow bring.  If it drops to around $34,  might just buy it. 

HopStop: New York Subway Guide

Although this topic has nothing to do with Personal Finances, I thought it good to mention a wonderful site for New York City straphangers: HopStop.

HopStop allows you to enter in a starting and ending address (like MapQuest), but instead of giving you driving directions, HopStop gives you either subway or bus directions.  For example, it will tell you to take the E train and switch to the 7 train to go from the Upper West Side to Grand Central.  Total travel time, route changes, and maps are all given.  You can also choose between more walking vs. more transfers.  

If you live or work in New York City, HopStop is an invaluable tool.

Bought First Muni Bonds

I recently bought my first bonds.  Not a bond fund, but actual bonds!  I had been investigating getting some for a while now, but always hesitated because I know so little about the whole process.  Bonds have a primary (initial offering like an IPO) and a secondary market.  In the primary, you buy directly from the issuer.  In the secondary, you buy from whoever is offering to sell their shares.  I wanted to go for the primary because the yields looked better and there was no commission to purchase.

After looking for quite a while (and getting the daily list of new offerings from a broker), I decided to take the plunge and buy some Municipal Bonds.  Since I live in New York City and pay such high local and state taxes (and am in the 33% tax bracket) I did the math and figured that muni bonds were the best bet.   The biggest reason for buying these bonds is for tax free income.  I don't have too much of my portfolio in bonds and I'm reluctant to buy bond funds that are volatile (we've already seen most bond funds drop in the current market).  

I figured that an actual bond would suit me just right if:

a) I was comfortable with the yield

b) I was willing to hold it until maturity

After that, it wouldn't matter if the price went up or down since at the end I would get the face value back (and all the interest over its life).

I ended up getting form the offering:

• 50 New York St Thruway Authority - General Highway and Bridge Trust Fund with a 4% coupon that matures in 4/01/2016
• 50 New York St Thruway Authority - General Highway and Bridge Trust Fund with a 4.4% coupon that matures in 4/01/2019
  

I was able to get them under par (less than the offer price of $100) at $99.22 and $99.72, respectively.  During an offering, like an IPO, the final price is determined on the day of issuance.  The value has already gone up (ignore what I said above about not mattering :) ) to about $102 each.  Can't argue with that!

I'l see how this goes and when I get more comfortable I look to purchase some more.

A Great Savings Site and a Great Personal Finance Site

There are two really nice sites I use quite often:

1. PriceProtectr: This site has saved me tons of money by letting my know when a recently purchased item goes down in price. Most sites has a 20-30 day price protection where if they price is lowered during that time period after purchase they'll refund the difference. For example, buy a new T.V. at Amazon for two days later they lower it $100, PriceProtectr will email you and you can ask Amazon to refund you the difference (they done if 5 times for me so far). There are tons of sites that they track, but I've only tried Amazon.

2. Yodlee Money Center: I seriously don't know why more people don't know about or use this site. I'm sure most of you have tried or heard about Microsoft Money or Inuit Quicken for tracking finances...and how much they suck! Those products are expensive and do a horrible job of tracking your finances. Yodlee Money Center does most of what Money and Quicken do, but it is online and free. You can track your net worth, spending history, balances, etc. The only point is that you need to trust them to store your user names and passwords to your financial sites. However, Yodlee is used by Chase, Citi, and a bunch of other banking sites, so it probably is fairly safe. At least I hope!