Did I hear that right?

What next? Disney touting parent-free cruises to Amsterdam?

Everyone that has kids wants to limit the iPhone. The fact that Sprint uses the image of a kid playing on a phone to promote their unlimited data plans tells me that they kind of don’t get it. A feeling that is only enhanced when I look at the parental controls they offer. While they do not charge for their suite of controls (props for that), they offer fewer features than the more robust offerings from ATT and Verizon. No time limits, no text budgeting. Sometimes limits are a good thing, or didn’t your parents teach you that, Sprint?

Some of the biggest challenges parents face when putting limits on kids with iPhones have nothing to do with the carrier. Let’s take the kid in the commercial as an example. He’s obviously playing with mom or dad’s (can’t really tell who has their back turned) iPhone 4S. What’s to stop him from crashing around, altering contacts, making international calls, editing documents and shooting a few videos all in an effort to launch Jetpack Joyride?

For many moms and dads, their phones are repositories, or at least gateways, to our most valuable and mission critical information. Yet, sooner or later, we all hand that thing over to the kid. How to keep your digital info safe and the kid occupied in the waiting room of the doctor’s office?

The good news is that there’s an app for that. When launched, Sandbox (from Austin’s own Famigo) creates a kid-safe environment of apps and content that simultaneously keeps the grown-up’s stuff safe.

The bad news is that it’s only available on Droid devices. Some API issue that is way over my head prevents them from offering an iPhone app. Hey, Apple! Free Famigo! (Watch our video profiling their app.)

And as long as we’re dreaming, why not allow the creation of multiple user accounts for each iPhone — the way you can with an iMac? One account could be unrestricted, the other would not screen YouTube, be allowed to change settings, to download inappropriate content, etc.

In the meanwhile, I’ve put all the games my kids can play in one folder. I ask them not to leave that folder without asking me. That keeps them from accidentally altering some essential setting — which they still somehow manage to do. Every time.

What issues have you encountered when handing back your iPhone?

The Net10 model I purchased for my eldest daughter. She wanted a qwerty keyboard.

Once upon a time, I had a monthly service contract with Cingular, then AT&T, for several cell phones used by my family. But I finally canceled my contract with them, for several reasons.

For one, the reception was terrible. To be blunt, it sucked. I didn’t have reception in my own home. Now, granted, we are in a rural area. But when my niece came to visit, her Verizon phone worked.  And when I was traveling, my voice mail messages would often lag hours or even a days behind. And don’t get me started on how poorly the phone worked in New York City.

Second, the price of having multiple lines kept going up, far out of proportion to how much we used the phones. Our minutes were never fully used. The cell phones became more of a luxury than any kind of necessity. They weren’t even a fun, useful toy. They were simply a money sink.

I didn’t get another cell phone for some time. I wanted to see if I could do without. I work from home, my four children were all in local schools so I can be reached via email or by phone in case of emergency. I didn’t need a cell phone. I merely wanted one. With our monthly budget tight, I held off getting another cell phone for over a year.

Gradually, though, after a couple of incidents caused by missed connections, it became clear I needed a cell phone and so did my husband, eldest daughter and eldest son.

I didn’t want to invest in a smartphone. I’m sure I would love one but I didn’t need the apps and neither did my kids. The husband did get a smart phone, a Blackberry with a Verizon contract, but that was provided by his work.

What I wanted for the other three phones was something cheap with inexpensive minutes and no service contract. I also wanted to use a service where I didn’t have to give them a credit card to automatically charge either monthly or when the phone was used. This was because of several bad experiences with automatic charges. It is extremely difficult to have charges reversed if an error is made, at least in my experience.

The AT&T Go Phones were out. I didn’t trust their reception. I looked around at several other “load and go” phones (also known as “burners”) but many of them seemed to have a complicated system for charging customers for minutes. “Free unless you use it on this day, then it’s just a dollar unless you stand on your head or go over the next day, then it’s something else and…”

Okay, not that complicated. But I wanted simple and I wanted a system that my kids couldn’t abuse and run up bills on.

I settled on Net10. The various phone models come loaded with minutes and, in general, with two months of service. After that initial period wears off, minutes can be added via phone cards or directly through Net10.

My eldest daughter wanted the qwerty keyboard so her phone was the most expensive at $80. I bought a flip model for myself and my son at $40 each. The prices were low enough that it wouldn’t be a tragedy if the phones were somehow lost, which sometimes happens with gadgets, especially when in the possession of teenagers.

Happily, we haven’t lost the phones.

And I’ve been very impressed with the reception, both with voice and text.

The catch is the customer service.

Twice, I’ve purchased “add service & minute” cards at my local grocery store only to have the card number declared invalid by Net10.

The first time, I tried their website. It went down or failed to send my email several times, so I resorted to calling them. After a wait of thirty minutes, the customer service agent told me to take it back to the store: it was their fault. So I did, only to have the lady at the customer service desk of the grocery store declare that they could not issue a refund for phone cards. She did, however, call up Net10 customer service herself. It took her a good ten minutes to get a person on the line. She then passed the phone to me and I explained the problem.

The agent was not empowered to fix the problem. He said I had to wait while he checked into it. However, after fifteen minutes of waiting, I told him I had to hang up and take my groceries home. Afterward, I called Net10 again, explained the problem once more, and spent an hour on the phone, mostly on hold. I was passed up the supervisor chain eventually. I wasn’t angry with them, I was polite, but I told them I was not going to eat the $30 card price and that since they had caused this problem, they needed to fix it.

Eventually they did, even giving me an extra 100 minutes. This mollified me quite a bit. Any company can have a problem with something and it was good of them to acknowledge the hassle caused by providing extra time.

Then it happened again.

Once more, an attempt to enter a card number and redeem minutes was bounced as Net10 declared it an invalid number. Not wanting to spend an hour or more on the phone this time, I went to their website. This time, the website was not glitchy and I was able to send an email.

My email was short and to the point. I told them this had happened before and my patience was ended. I gave them the card # and the phone number for the Net10 phone in question.

The first response back was that the card number was invalid. I believe I was restrained enough to not say “Duh!” but I responded by saying “yes, I know that the card number is coming back as invalid. That is the problem and this is the second time this is happened and I’m very unhappy about it.”

The next email said that they would add the service time and minutes to the phone. They did, though this time I didn’t get an apology or 100 extra minutes.

So, would I recommend Net10 to others?

I’m really happy with the phones themselves–though they’re nothing special in this world of smart phones–and the reception is always excellent. It’s easy to know when I’m running out of minutes and this kind of plan teaches my kids to budget their time on the phone.

But the issues with card redemption make me very leery of recommending Net10 to others. Maybe these two problems were isolated. But I worry there’s an issue with certain batches of card numbers that somehow aren’t valid in their computer system. I purchased mine from a big grocery store chain, not a small place or one that might expect to have had the cards sitting around for a while.

I’m thinking that the next time I buy a pay-as-you-go phone, I’m going to have to try a new brand.

The Argument for iPhone

If you ask a random sampling of people about which is the best smartphone on the market you are likely to get a healthy debate, especially when it comes to the battle between iPhone devotees and Android advocates.

I’ll freely admit that I’m a recently converted Apple fanboy. I made the switch a year and a half ago after Vista finally broke my spirit for all things Microsoft. After nearly two years with my MacBook Pro I can honestly say I couldn’t go back to a Windows based PC. I have a two year old Dell collecting dust so my son can learn Windows, but it is definitely the red headed stepchild of computers in our house.

I had my iPhone 3G before turning to the dark side of computing and loved it. However, when the Android devices started flooding the market I seriously considered switching back to Verizon to get a Droid R2D2. As the rumors circulated that Apple was working on an iPhone that wouldn’t be tied to AT&T’s network I decided to hold off.

To read the full article, click on over to Man of the House.

Photo by Yutaka Tsutano

While you may think that a simple iPhone software glitch that will magically fix itself in a few days would have no real effect on people who actually own iPhones, I’m writing you today sir to tell you that it is quite the opposite. I am a stay at home dad in a popular household in Charlotte, NC; or, at least, I was. Having a Bachelors’ of Science in Finance and nearly a dozen years of experience in the financial services field, you may think I am overqualified for a job as a stay at home dad. Well, you may be right. But alas, I have intentionally chosen to stay at home with my kids, so there.

I had to watch my children New Year’s Eve from approximately 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. After my wife arrived home from work, I poured myself three fingers of scotch and set my iPhone alarm to wake me up at 6:00 p.m. This would have given me ample time to wake up and ready myself to make dinner, get the kids bathed and to bed, clean my house, prepare my wife’s lunch for the next day and possibly, just possibly, enjoy a glass of non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice as the ball dropped in Times Square. Regrettably, I can no longer handle two alcoholic beverages in one twenty four hour period.

In parenting where one is expected to keep late hours, but also wake up early, my alarm clock is essential. When I don’t get my late afternoon nap I am cranky because with two kids I rarely get more than three or four hours of sleep in a row; yet, my six month old could care less about that. An alarm clock is the only way to ensure that I can get up before the baby wakes, get my son ready for the day, defrost the days supply of breast milk and maybe even make myself a smoothie before the chaos ensues.

While my job may seem insignificant to you, sir; it is the only way I earn my allowance that enables me to pay $100 per month for my iPhone service. Upon the termination of my parental rights, I was told that I was wonderful, but my tardiness was not fair to the children.

So, Mr. Jobs, I’d like you to know that you sir have officially, directly contributed to the destruction of the family unit in this country. If you had warned me about the glitch, I could have exercised some foresight and purchased a $5, battery operated alarm clock (or even this sweet $17 model I found that sets itself) and saved my family.

Now I’m man without charges in a time when finding another family that needs a stay at home dad won’t be easy, and my allowance has been cut off. So, Happy New Year to you, Mr. Jobs. I hope you remember to shoot me an email the next time there is any chance of a glitch. You could also follow me on Twitter or friend me Facebook. I promise not to ask you to join my mafia – that was so 2009.

(Just a note, even though you no longer participate in any type of revenue sharing for iPhone plans I thought I might close this out by being even more passive aggressive and relay to you that my iPhone bill payment will probably be a little late this month. Seriously though, if AT&T does cut me off it will be alright because I don’t need their service to play Angry Birds.)

This was a parody of a post I read earlier this week over at the Huffington Post. The sheer audacity of the author to ignore any sense of personal responsibility for her situation and write this piece was absolutely astounding. Of course my first reaction was to write something as equally ridiculous to make fun of it. Now excuse me while I go take that nap.

Photo by dougbelshaw

On Monday Jason wrote a great overview about dividend investing . Since you now know what dividends are all about, I figured it would be a good opportunity to do a guest post on the subject. I write about the stock market and personal finance at my blog Stock investing 101.

Photo by gfpeck

Dividend investing is the best way to generate passive income and become wealthy, period. It is the perfect example of making your money work for you.

AT&T pays out a 6.7% dividend yield. This means for every 100 dollars of the stock you own you will be given $6.70 a year from the company as a bonus for just being a shareholder of the company. Compare 6.7% to the interest you could get from a standard checking account or a CD. You are getting at least 3 times the return from owning AT&T versus investing in a CD, and that is not factoring in any potential increase in AT&T’s share price.

Most dividend paying companies also offer a DRIP program, DRIP stands for Dividend reinvestment program. If you opt for the DRIP program the money you receive each quarter from owning stock will be used to buy more of the stock instead of being given to you in cash. This is a great way to take advantage of compound interest.

Jason mentioned he purchased 80 shares of AT&T. If he opted for the dividend reinvestment plan those 80 shares would grow to 85.4 shares after just one year. After 5 years his purchase of 80 shares of the company would now have ballooned to almost 110 shares of the company. After those 5 years, assuming AT&T kept its dividend rate steady [which is very conservative when you consider that AT&T has a long track record of consistently raising its dividend] Jason would then be actually getting a 9.3% yield on his original investment. 110 X 1.68= 184.8/ [25.25[share price]X 80= 2020].

The numbers only get more and more impressive and mind boggling over time. In ten years AT&T could go from paying his Netflix membership to making his car payments, in thirty years AT&T could pay his mortgage.

The best thing about this is that there is almost no work involved. After you make your initial investment everything is on autopilot.

Here is a short overview of 5 different dividend paying companies in 3 different sectors to get you started. Remember that this list is not comprehensive in the least bit and it is far from fool proof:

• AT&T: Jason and I have mentioned this company countless times for a reason. It pays out a whopping 6.7% yield, it is in a stable sector that all of us understand, and I don’t see people getting rid of their cell phones or their Internet connection anytime soon.

• Coke: Coke is another great dividend paying company. Its yield of 3.2% is not as impressive as AT&T’s but it is still a great value. Coke raises its dividend religiously so I expect even more from it in the future.

• Pfizer: Pfizer is a huge health care conglomerate. It pays out a very impressive 4.1% dividend yield at the moment and it is a very solid company. It presents a great value to investors.

You will not get 30% yearly returns from investing in dividend paying companies but you will get the best possible return in the long run along with the most stable investment with the least amount of work involved.

If you are interested in learning more about dividend investing, I highly recommend the book The Ultimate Dividend Playbook from Morningstar (written by Josh Peters).

Note from Frugal Dad: After giving it some thought, and investigating the plan with my online brokerage, I have decided to sign up for their dividend reinvestment program. Dividends will be reinvested in eligible securities held in our portfolio, allowing us to build our positions more quickly without an added fee.

Post by Frugal Dad