So, what’s a suffering saver to do?  Here’s a trick to improve your interest rate on a 2 year CD.  And, the tip also works for other medium length CD terms.

What’s the trick?  Buy a 5 or more year CD and pay the withdrawal penalty if you need the cash earlier than that!

An Example: Investing $10,000 for 2 Years

Let’s look at the math.  I’m using the rates from DiscoverBank.com as an example.  (Rates as of October 25, 2011).

• 2 Year CD: 1.25% APY
• 5 Year CD: 2.00% APY
• 10 Year CD: 2.50% APY

Now, we need to look carefully at the early withdrawal penalties:

• CD term of 1 to 5 years: The penalty is 6 months simple interest on the amount withdrawn.
• CD term of more than 5 years: The penalty is 9 months simple interest on the amount withdrawn.

If we deposit our $10,000 in a 2-year CD, and withdraw the balance after 2 years, we’ll earn $251.56 in interest.

Invest the same $10,000 in a 5-year CD, and after two years the interest is $404.00 but when we withdraw we owe a penalty of 6 months interest on the $10,404.  That penalty is $10,404 * 2% * 6/12 = $104.04.  Our total profit is $404.00 – $104.04 = $299.96.  That’s an effective APY of over 1.48%.  Nice boost.

What if we use a 10-Year CD instead to get the top rate of 2.50% APY?

After two years at 2.50%, our balance is $10,506.25.  Our penalty is 9 months interest now, equalling $197.  Profit of $309.25 is even better than before.  An effective APY of over 1.53%.

Obviously you will need to do a similar analysis for your particular situation, but you’ll often find that you can gain the benefit of the higher rates from a longer term, and still come out ahead even if you have to pay an early withdrawal penalty.

Download the original Moxie from iTunes here.

Moxie is an elegantly simple game where you make words as a list of randomly shuffled letters appear.  You earn points by creating chains of words.  For example, Use becomes Ruse becomes Rule becomes Rules.

In addition, certain specific words in a chosen category earn bonus points.  These “Moxie Words” are a key to higher scores.

I decided to work out the scores for the various Moxie Words in the “Animal” category.

Here then is my sorted list of Moxie Words along with their respective scores.

Moxie Words in Animal Category sorted by score

eel      115
bee      115
ape      115
rat      121
hog      121
hen      121
ram      121
pig      121
dog      121
cow      121
cat      121
owl      121
bat      121
fox      142
jay      148
seal     224
goat     232
lion     232
hare     232
mole     232
wasp     232
swan     232
toad     232
deer     232
boar     232
bear     232
fish     232
clam     240
crow     240
bird     240
frog     240
lamb     240
dove     240
mule     248
gull     256
lark     268
hawk     268
moose    335
goose    335
horse    345
sheep    345
whale    355
mouse    355
camel    355
heron    355
louse    355
panda    355
raven    365
hound    375
snake    380
stork    390
shark    390

With these best scoring Moxie Words in hand, you can plan sequences of point-packed word chains.

Fans of Moxie should try out the new Moxie 2 with 6-letter words and lots more improvements.

I was reading through some posts on one of my favorite American-Expatriates-in-Mexico sites (Falling in Love with San Miguel) when I came across a brief mention of a language learning resource called LiveMocha.  Wow!  I had no idea what I was missing out on.

LiveMocha is one of the most innovative uses I have yet seen of social networking on the Internet.  It is a vibrant community of people who are learning various languages, and the community knowledge is leveraged in a fascinating way.  I am a native English speaker learning Spanish, so as I progress through the lessons, my writing and speaking exercises are graded by Spanish speakers.  In return, I assess the progress of students who are learning English.  It’s brilliant!

The lessons themselves are really excellent, and I can tell this is going to jumpstart my learning process yet again.

It seems that language learning comes in steps up to a plateau, followed by a period of time where it seems like you are making no further progress.  I’m excited to feel the beginning of a new learning acceleration, fueled by this excellent new tool.

Head over to LiveMocha and check it out.  Feel free to send me a friend request.  I am registered there as KenSmith.

Great news!  This course is now in the public domain, and some volunteers have begun the process of making the entire course available for free download.

The Spanish course is available here:FSI Spanish Courses

The entire workbooks for Basic Spanish I and Basic Spanish II are available as PDF files, and so far, 9 of the 15 units in Basic Spanish I have MP3 files available.

There is a second FSI Spanish course, called Spanish Programmatic Course, which is available in its entirety.

Check out their homepage to see the many other languages that are available:

http://www.fsi-language-courses.com

What a great resource!

The show airs on the Galavision network, which is part of many satellite and cable providers channel lineup.  Currently, the schedule is 2 PM Central time, Monday through Friday.

HITN is DirecTV channel 438, and is also available on DishNetwork on channels 843 & 9401.  According to the HITN-TV website, some cable systems in major US cities carry the network as well.

Las Joyas de México features well-produced stories about interesting sites in Mexico, and I find the Spanish to be easier than most shows.  Unfortunately, there’s no closed captioning available, but I think most students of Spanish will be able to follow enough of the dialogue to make it worth tuning in.

The series has its own website, at http://www.lasjoyasdemexico.com, although it doesn’t have much information about the actual shows.

CNN en Español is always a good choice, as is Discovery Channel Español.  Now my ReplayTV is chock full of Spanish language shows.  HITN also runs 2 episodes each Sunday of Destinos, a Spanish language instructional show.  The best part of all this Spanish TV is that I can really see the difference in my comprehension.  In my last exposure to Destinos, I was able to understand only bits and pieces, while now I can follow along with much of the dialogue.

See more at the SkyAndTelescope.com site:
The Evening Star Greets the Ringed Planet

The shows feature a mix of Spanish only commentary with closed captions, and English language segments that feature Spanish subtitles. Both types of content are helpful to reading and listening comprehension. I’m also pausing the shows when I sense that an unknown word is common or particularly useful. At that point, I look up the word in my Spanish-English dictionary, and if I think the word is a useful addition to my vocabulary I make a quick flashcard for it and resume watching the show.

For flashcards, I’m using a tip I learned from the Learning Spanish podcasts I mentioned here recently. I went to Kinko’s and had them cut business card stock into blank business cards. They’re the perfect size and paper weight for homemade flashcards. I keep a stack of the resulting flashcards handy to use whenever I have a few minutes to spare.

The second show I want to mention comes from the Spanish language network Galavision. Check your schedule for “Fuera de Serie”, a half-hour show focusing on various travel destinations. Unfortunately, the show does not offer closed captioning, so it’s quite a challenge for me to understand much of what is being said. Still, the shows feature interesting destinations and it’s enjoyable to try to keep up. The title of the show, Fuera de Serie, translates roughly to “Out of the Ordinary”, though I’ve seen it translated elsewhere “Out of this World” or “Something Outrageous”.

The bloggers, Carlos y Amber, also have posted photos and stories from several other parts of Mexico.