The Discover More Card is currently offering a $50 signup bonus (for a limited time). Simply apply for the card, get approved, and then make make $500 in purchases within the first 3 months to get the bonus.

This card is amongst the best reward credit cards currently available. In addition to the signup bonus, other attractive features of this card include:

• 0% balance transfer
• 0% APR on purchases
• Up to 5% cash back rewards
• No annual fee

Here’s another chance to get Delta SkyMiles in return for signing up to receive promotional e-mails. This time around, it’s 1500 bonus SkyMiles.

Once again, this appears to be a targeted offer. I just tried all of our SkyMiles numbers (mine, my wife’s, and each of our four kids’) and got the bonus for three of our accounts.

To sign up, point your browser to here and enter your SkyMiles number to see if you qualify. The worst they can do is say no. According to the e-mail, you have to sign up before July 8, 2009 to qualify. As before, if you don’t want to receive their e-mails, simply set up a filter to delete them upon arrival.

Did you know that you can start a 529 plan for your kids even if they’re not born yet? It’s true. Because anyone, regardless of age, can be listed as the account beneficiary, and because you can change beneficiaries in the future, you can simply open an account with you or your spouse listed as the beneficiary. You can then go ahead and start stuffing it with cash even before you have kids.

The only downside to this strategy is that you will face taxes and penalties if you change your mind about starting a family, or are unable to have kids. While qualified withdrawals are tax free, unqualified withdrawals are subject to both income tax and a 10% penalty. Of course, you can still use the money to support your own (continued) education, or you can name someone else (perhaps a niece or nephew) as the beneficiary.

If you decided to move forward with this, check out these lists of the best 529 plans and the worst 529 plans.

There’s very little time on this one, as it expires today… Apologies for the short notice. Act fast!

Ever wish you had GPS for your car? Well, now you can get one without even having to pay for it. Simply open an account with KeyBank and follow a few simple steps. Here’s the scoop:

1. Open a new qualifying KeyBank account by April 24th, 2009
2. Make one debit card transaction by June 26, 2009
3. Make two direct deposits and/or automated payment by June 26, 2009
4. Get your Garmin nüvi GPS within 90 days

The type of GPS unit that you get depends on the account type that you open. Note that this promo is limited to customers in Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. Minimum balance requirements may apply on certain accounts. Be sure to read the Terms & Conditions.

Via: MyDollarPlan

If you want to (roughly) translate your salary into an hourly wage, simply cut it in half and then drop three zeroes (i.e., divide by 1000). Conversely, if you want to estimate your full time salary based on your hourly wage, double it and add three zeroes to the end.

So… If you make $50k/year, you’re earning roughly $25/hour. Making fifteen bucks and hour? That’s (roughly) $30k per year.

For a more precise estimate, you should divide your salary by 2080 or multiply your hourly wage by the same amount. The reason for this is that there are 2080 hours in a standard working year. But if a rough estimate will do, the above guidelines make the math a bit easier.

Check it out… Amazon has a big list of free music downloads from their MP3 service. You can even sort parse the list by category by using the links in the left sidebar. The selection isn’t great, but it’s free, and you can find some cool stuff.

Yesterday afternoon I had to run to Bank of America for some personal business. While I was there, I learned that they’re offering a 2% APY promo rate on one of their money market accounts. While I was able to get the personal banker to switch the “affinity code” attached to our savings account such that we’re now getting this rate. There’s a $5k minimum to avoid fees, and a $10k minimum to get the promo rate. Aside from that, I’m afraid that I don’t have too many other details.

I’m quite sure that the account type in question was their Select Money Market Savings, but I’ve checked the publicly available rates on the BofA website and have come up dry. None of their accounts are offering anywhere near 2%. Regardless, the banker showed me the rates on their internal site so I know it’s for real. Unfortunately, I have no idea if it’s a local offer, or if this is something that’s available everywhere.

If you have a BofA savings account, I suggest that you call your local branch and see if you can get in on this offer as it’s on par with anything you can get from an online savings account. Like I said above, they should be able to simply change your affinity code to get you the higher rate. I also asked about switching back if the rate falls, and was told that it wouldn’t be a problem to make the change. I’ll update later if I’m able to dig up additional information.

Ever heard of the Rule of 72? It’s a useful rule for figuring out how quickly your investments will grow. Simply divide the expected annual rate of return into 72 and you’ll get a quick and dirty estimate of the number of years required to double your money. For example, if your investments return 9%, your money will double in eight years. Note that this works best for returns in the 6-10% range, but even outside this range the answer is close enough for most purposes.

With tax day just over two weeks away, I thought I’d say a few words about how to request an income tax filing extension. For starters, an automatic, six month filing extension is yours for the asking.

How do you ask? Simply file IRS Form 4868 or file your extension electronically with your tax prep software. Just be sure that you postmark your request by April 15th.

Just keep in mind that you still have to pay any taxes due by Tax Day at the latest. In other words, while you can get an extension on all of the paperwork, you still have estimate what you’ll owe and send that in along with Form 4868. If you don’t, you could wind up facing an underpayment penalty.

When you finally get around to filing, you can simply claim credit for the payment that you made when you filed for your extension. Of course, if you’re expecting a return, you shouldn’t wait to file. But it your taxes are particularly complex, you can buy yourself a bit of extra time.

Did you know that you can opt out of those pesky, unsolicited credit card offers that come in the mail? Well, you can. And it’s very, very easy. Just visit OptOutPrescreen.com and enter your info. OptOutPrescreen is:

“the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry website to accept and process requests from consumers to Opt-In or Opt-Out firm offers of credit or insurance. While this won’t actually stop every single credit card offer, it will stop so-called “firm” offers, which are based on information contained within your credit report. By signing up electronically, you’ll opt out of these sorts of credit card offers for a period of five year. If you want to opt out permanently, you’ll have to notify them in writing.”

This won’t stop every single credit card offer, but it will stop so-called “firm” offers, which are based on information contained within your credit report. By signing up electronically, you’re opting out of these types of offers for five years. If you want to opt out permanently, you’ll have to notify them in writing.

The downside to doing this is that you may miss out on some of the best credit card offers (such as 0% balance transfers, credit card signup bonuses, etc.), as these sorts of offers frequently come by mail, and are often only offered to people that meet certain credit criteria.

Of course, you can always opt back in if you ope-out now and later change your mind.