Grandfathered Virgin Mobile $25 month plan slowly going away

As price battles continue in the mobile phone market place, VM is trying to weed themselves of their $25/month subscribers. I don't blame them. $25 a month is peanuts for unlimited data/texts and 300 talking minutes.

I've been using Virgin Mobile's $25 plan for about 2 years now. They've already bumped new accounts up to $35 last year. Those of us grandfathered into the $25 have been given notice that we can upgrade phones in the next month and retain our $25 month plan. But after 5/27/2012 if we upgrade/swap phones our rate will go to $35. Heck, I don't mind because even at $35 month it is a fantastic deal for an Android smartphone. But I still prefer the $25 price.

So... I guess I better upgrade my cruddy Samsung Intercept to one of their newer models. My phone has issues and needs the occasional battery pull to restart it and can be painfully slow. Getting a new phone will be worth it, bundled with keeping the $25 month rate and saving $120 a year. With this I should be good on the $25 for another 2 years.

But the text I received from VM also hints that they may be releasing new phones at that time as well.  4G perhaps? So maybe the new models will be worth paying $35 a month for. I called VM customer support but they didn't have any clue what I was talking about. Go figure that the marketing dept is ahead of cust support...

Here is the text VM sent:
http://vm.tmce.biz/wap4?app=virginmobile&c=vir&NEXT=P31

...

Making a tank of gas last 6 weeks

This past week we filled up our Subaru with gas. The prior time we filled this car up was early March. Feels good to have this much amount of time between fill ups. This has been possible by maximizing the gas mileage of the Subaru, which is best done by not driving it. (I keep hearing that airlines are doing this too, parking their older less fuel efficient planes in the desert and subsequently driving up the price of airfare.)

Ever since I switched to motorcycle commuting I've barely been driving the Subaru to work. Maybe once or twice every few weeks. This is fantastic because my motorcycle gets over 40 mpg and costs about $10 a week to fill up for commuting.

And of course this puts a lot of less miles on the Subaru.

How has the higher price of gas been treating you?

Quick thought on gold and silver prices and their historical ratio

With the proliferation of all the gold buying stores, ads, and parties around I wonder if some economists are correct that the bubble has begun for precious metals. We own a little of each, but it is a very small percent of our total portfolio. I prefer silver because there so many interesting bullion coins made. I have both a Jose Canseco and a John Lennon bullion coin. How cool (or weird) is that?

For us the money invested is just fun money. But I do read about people that are 40% in. Or even all in. A potentially very dangerous position in a very volatile space. But some people think it helps them sleep better at night not trusting in stock, bonds, real estate, and money, etc. And some of these people truly think economic collapse and upheaval is nearing. I think the odds are stacked against their favor. Hard to believe just one assets will trump all others.

I don't have much feeling of which way gold and silver will go. Way up or way down. Or stay the same. I'll be happy one way or the other. There is one aspect that is interesting which ignores the actual prices of the precious metals but looks at the ratio instead.


Here's a quick look at the history of prices between the two metals starting in 1840.

Have you bought or sold gold? Is this something even on your radar? Do you care?

No tax worries this April

I tend to be a last-minute doer. I college I can recall cramming for exams the night before. And this certainly applied to taxes as well. I wouldn't always wait to file the last day, but generally would do so the week before.

I am excited to say that this year this won't be the case. I filed this past weekend and for the first time ever (I believe) have file before April has started. It's a good achievement. Next year I'll aim for February.

Have you filed yet? Do you always file later than you hope?