Weekend Deals

Here are some good deals I found that won't cost you a bunch:

• eCost.com has Ultra battery charger with 4 AA NiMh rechargeable batteries for FREE. The list price is $15, but there's a $15 mail-in-rebates good till December 31st. However, the shipping is not free. eCost also has $10 off $30 Google Checkout discount.
• TigerDirect.com has Power Up SpeedDrive 4GB USB 2.0 Portable Flash Drive for $14.99 after $60 mail-in-rebates ($30 with original UPC label and $30 with photo copy). Fifteen bucks for a 4 GB flash drive is a very good deal if you have that large capacity.
• Buy.com has Polaroid Photo Printer [Buy.com affiliate link] for free after $30 mail-in-rebates ($20.01 with original UPC code and $8.99 additional rebate with photocopy) plus $20 Google Checkout discount.
• Frys.cm has PQI 2GB compact flash for $6.99 after $25 rebate with free shipping. It's not a well known brand, but sure cheap.

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Flexible Spending Account Grace Period

As 2006 comes to the end, one year-end move suggested by many personal finance articles is to spend whatever you still have in your flexible spending account (FSA) before December 31st due to the use-it-or-lose-it rule. However, IRS allows up to two and a half months of grace period into the new year for the spendings still be qualified for the reimbursement. According to IRS Notice 2005-42

A cafeteria plan document may, at the employer’s option, be amended to provide for a grace period immediately following the end of each plan year. The grace period must apply to all participants in the cafeteria plan. Expenses for qualified benefits incurred during the grace period may be paid or reimbursed from benefits or contributions remaining unused at the end of the immediately preceding plan year. The grace period must not extend beyond the fifteenth day of the third calendar month after the end of the immediately preceding plan year to which it relates (i.e., "the 2 and 1/2 month rule"). If a cafeteria plan document is amended to include a grace period, a participant who has unused benefits or contributions relating to a particular qualified benefit from the immediately preceding plan year, and who incurs expenses for that same qualified benefit during the grace period, may be paid or reimbursed for those expenses from the unused benefits or contributions as if the expenses had been incurred in the immediately preceding plan year. The effect of the grace period is that the participant may have as long as 14 months and 15 days (the 12 months in the current cafeteria plan year plus the grace period) to use the benefits or contributions for a plan year before those amounts are "forfeited" under the "use-it-or-lose-it" rule.

But the grace period is only an option not a mandate to the employer. Therefore, you have to check with your employer to see whether they have the grace period or not. If they do, you have ten extra weeks to empty your FSA account. Otherwise, you only have two more weeks.

Use it or lose it!

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$0.99 One Way Fares at Spirit Airlines Today Only

Spirit Airlines is having what it calls "The Mother of All Spirit Sales" today. For some routes, the air fare can be as low as 99 cents (yes, 99 cents). For example,

• From Atlanta to Orlando, $0.99 each way, available on 2/10/07, 2/22/07, 2/28/07, 3/3/07
• From Boston to Detroit, $0.99 each way, available on 1/8/07, 2/27/07, 2/28/07, 3/7/07

just a couple of examples of their on sale items. If you are planing any air travel early next year, check their website to see your origin and destination are in their list of 99 cents fairs. The sales end tonight at 11:50 pm ET.

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$5 Gift Card for Downloading ScriptLogic’s Desktop Authority Image Center

I got this in email yesterday from TechNewsletter.com. Looks like it's a free offer, but I am not sure whether or not I can indeed receive the gift card. Here's what it says in the fine print:

Offer is good for U.S. residents only and is limited to companies that receive a certain email promotion from ScriptLogic. One gift card per recipient company of this email promotion. Please allow approximately 30 days for receipt of e-mail with gift card redemption code number. The promotion may be cancelled at any time by ScriptLogic Corporation with or without notice. All registrants must have the intention of actually trialing the product for their business needs, as determined by ScriptLogic in its sole and absolute discretion based on among other things, information provided as part of the registration. This promotion expires on January 13, 2007 and quantities are limited. This promotion is void where prohibited. Each registrant warrants that they are not violating their company policy by registering for this promotion.

It seems that there are some very strict conditions attached to this offer. Anyway, if you want to try it, use this link. First you need to register with a company name, then they will send you an email with the download link. Follow that link to download the software.

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Mutual Fund Year-end Distributions

As we entered the final weeks of 2006, mutual fund companies start to make year-end distributions. Yesterday, another fund in my mutual fund portfolio, Oakmark Equity and Income Fund (OAKBX), paid out annual dividend and capital gain. So far, two of my mutual funds distributed dividend and capital gain (CSVFX distributed on September 20th):

Symbol	Date	Dividend	Short-term capital gain	Long-term capital gain	Total
CSVFX	09/20/06/	$0.12	$0.13	$2.51	$2.76
OAKBX	12/14/06/	$0.5013	$0	$1.3081	$1.8094

For OAKBX, the total payout amount is $641.20 and this will be part of my 2006 passive incomes, which are subjective to income taxes. The good thing is that there’s no short-term capital gain which is taxed at my ordinary income rate. For qualified dividend and long-term capital gain, the maximum tax rate is 15% (click here for my previous post on mutual fund distributions and how they are taxed and here’s a related article on Bankrate.com).

If you plan to make some mutual fund purchases at the end of the year, you should check with your fund company for the exact dividend pay out date to avoid buying-the-dividend, i.e., buying mutual fund shares right before its dividend/capital gain distribution, especially if you are making a large lump sum investment as buying-the-dividend will incur immediate taxes at your ordinary income tax level. If, however, you are dollar-cost-averaging a small amount, the tax consequence is not that severe.

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