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Fitness Trackers Should Be Free From Health Insurers

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Fitness Tracker Photo
The Fitbit Force is a popular fitness tracker, but pricey at $129.95.

College campuses are hotbeds for new technologies, fads, and styles. Over the last couple semesters I’ve noticed a sizeable uptick in people wearing fitness trackers. These sleek, bracelet-like devices can track your steps, calories burned, food eaten, exercise routines, and sleep habits. Many can wirelessly sync to computers and smartphones.

Fitness trackers have long intrigued me, as a runner and frequent exerciser. Personally, I think the feedback would be helpful and encourage more healthy routines. I’ve seen both athletic and overweight populations wearing them. They seem perfectly suited to both populations’ needs. Despite these ample benefits, I haven’t purchased one because I think they should be free.

Running Budget Save Savings
Photo: brianac37/flickr

Insurance Companies Want Healthy Consumers

Health insurance costs escalated rapidly in recent years. Far surpassing inflation and comparable countries’ medical costs per capita, health coverage is a thorn for many individuals and small businesses. At times, the price of quality health care can be hard to come by if you’re on a tight budget.

Certain health provider groups started catering to athletes and highly-active individuals a few years ago. By developing a niche group of actuarially healthy individuals, the company could lower the cost of everyone’s premiums. Quite simply, it’s profitable for health insurers to encourage healthy choices in their clients.

Let’s Use Fiction To Inspire

Last year, Dave Eggers published his latest novel entitled, The Circle. Set in San Francisco and other parts of Northern California, the book takes the reader on a journey around a company that largely resembles Google. It’s a tech savvy, forward thinking company, that aims to collect everything and give people access to all the world’s information. Despite being insanely creepy at times, The Circle introduces some brilliant tech revolutions.

The one that is most apropos to this article is about a fitness tracker health insurance program. A free part of having this imaginary company’s health insurance is the access to one of these devices. It’s always on and managing your heart rate, calories burned, and tracking your sleep. The device is given at no cost to the employees because they can manage and encourage healthier habits – helping people live longer and cutting costs in heart-related procedures.

The Perfect Price Is Free

I have a serious bias because I’d like a fitness tracker. I think it would encourage me to exercise more regularly and eat healthier. Recognizing and tracking the strengths and weaknesses in your activity choices could positively influence much of the countries heart-related complications.

Ideally, health insurers will recognize the financial appeal of such devices and encourage certain clientele to use these trackers. By encouraging people to engage in more healthy behavior and connecting it with a financially solvent future, it may make the impetus and desire to exercise more potent.

The perfect price is free. This would eventually be a win-win for consumers, innovators, and the health insurers. This leap into technology has been stifled by prices that tend to be over $100 for trackers. As prices begin to decline (inevitably with all technology), fitness trackers may be a more easy choice for everyone involved.

Have you thought about getting a fitness tracker? Would you like your medical insurance to offer a free one?

Why Are College Textbooks So Expensive In The Google Age?

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College Textbooks price problem
Photo: xshamethestrongx/flickr

We live in the greatest information age ever. Bandwidth, storage, data, smartphones, and computers are cheap! With a carrier contract, you can have your first Android or iOS phone for free. For as little as $200, you can buy your first computer – brand new. These devices used to be expensive and less powerful – a luxury for the wealthy, subject of study in academia, or business tool.

The decline in prices is largely attributable to Moore’s Law, which asserts that the number of transistors on circuits doubles approximately every 2 years. These advances have contributed to the accessible age for information – spanning vast income demographics and socioeconomic factors. Unfortunately, college textbooks haven’t seen these progressive declines that could attract larger audiences.

Information Is Stuck Inside A College Textbook

Major publishers of textbooks (i.e., Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Reed Elsevier) have long held dominant control of the industry. Despite vast sums of encyclopedic information moving to free sites like Wikipedia, these publishers have courted the strongest academics to publish on their platforms. With this control and profit model come crushing prices for students.

Academics, largely coming from older generations – before the popularization of the Internet – are content with this publication model (or, they must be if they keep hawking them at the beginning of every semester). When they are recruited to write for these publishers, their knowledge is condensed, controlled, and synthesized. Unlike the Internet’s anarchic flow, an elite few choose what is shared.

Most businesses follow free market principles of supply and demand, but the textbook industry doesn’t follow those same rules. Their supply is infinite and their demand is solely based on their marketing tactics to professors, and the network that professors have with authors. In turn, this stifles competition for pricing – making every book unique and “worth” a premium price.

New College Textbooks Are A Small Fortune To Buy, Make

Publishers use rich text, color, paper, and often publish in hardcover. All of these materials are beyond necessary and contradictory to the principles of progress that are present in this information/Google age. The quality materials give even more reason for publishers to charge more for the college textbooks, but oftentimes you won’t ever reference the book again.

If you are unlucky enough to buy a textbook during an edition update cycle, your $200+ purchase price may lead to an abysmal resale value. New editions are constantly released, usually with minor changes that are imperceptible to the casual reader. This forces students to buy newer and newer texts, and professors are encouraged to hawk these latest editions because they are given free instructor copies. Effectively, this artificially manipulates the supply for certain level textbooks.

When new textbooks come to market, they can easily fetch nearly $200 or more. That’s 1000% more than most popular hardcover novels at Amazon.com. While the Internet has made for more free stuff than ever, textbooks seem to be stuck in the three-decimal price range. Technological advances seem to be overlooked when it comes to price considerations.

Google Search Economics Answers
Google, What’s Economics? (Click to enlarge)

Online, Electronic Platforms Were Supposed To Bring Price Declines

Despite the significant, onerous budgetary demands that these expensive college textbooks place on students, professors seem happy to assign them as “required” for the course. Every class I’m taking this semester emphasizes the need for certain textbooks. It seems like professors willingly participate in this complicated price fixing.

While technologies have improved, the prices of textbooks haven’t fallen. Moreover, even though ebooks and online books are becoming more popular, they are usually the same price or a smidgen cheaper than their concrete brethren. Unfortunately, this small price decline (sometimes) does not account for the fact that the digital textbooks cannot be resold. By purchasing an online book, you are limited to that world and restricted from recouping some of your losses.

A Plan Of Action Going Forward

This semester I refuse to buy a single college textbook. It’s not that I believe we should abolish them, but make them more accessible. Even though I won’t purchase one this semester, I use every campus resource I have to get access to them. Thankfully, as part of the Big 10 system, I can request books from every library within the network.

Next time a professor says a college textbook is required for ask, it’s worth asking them:

  1. Did you get a free instructor copy of the text?
  2. Why are you promoting this particular text and edition?
  3. Are there any free methods (i.e., Wikipedia, online editions) to getting access to this information?
  4. Would you buy this textbook if you were taking this class?
  5. Will we actually reference from this throughout the semester?

Best Brokers For Commission-Free ETFs

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New York Stock Exchange NYSE Broker ETFs
Photo: Wikipedia/Library of Congress

Little funds, big investments

Despite great strides to make the market more friendly to those with lesser funds, it is frequently stacked against the little player. Before I was in debt, I had a paltry sum money to invest. Wanting to avoid the hassle of reporting tax gains and losses from stock trades, I decided to open a Roth IRA. There was only about $1,000 in my initial deposit.

The commissions from my initial broker made trading cost-prohibitive. Every trade was about 1% of my total account value (~$10). If I wanted to realize gains on one share of a $100 stock, I needed to wait for it to climb 20 points (ten for purchase and ten for sale). With $1,000, it becomes very difficult to invest diversely and smartly. This was a recipe for disaster, until I found commission-free ETFs.

The advantages of commission-free ETFs

For me, as a small player in the market with scarce time for research in individual stocks, it’s important to save money in trading fees and pick more diverse index funds. Mutual funds are great as a diversification strategy, but often require a sizeable sum to start. That’s where commission-free ETFs come into the picture. 

In 2008, ETFs became a popular way to purchase managed (someone controls what the index is invested in) funds on the open market with live pricing; unlike mutual funds, which NAV prices update only once a day. They’re easy to trade right on the traditional exchanges, and instantly diversify your portfolio, while giving you the choice in a variety of broad-market sectors.

As the popularity rose, brokers took a keen interest in attracting new customers by offering free trades in certain ETFs. There are serious considerations to make before investing in any of these commission-free ETFs. Despite the diversification, these investments still have sizable risk and still require some research. That being said, commission-free ETFs can be a tremendous way to begin investing, diversifying your holdings, and saving money.

The Top 3 Commission-Free ETF Brokers

1. TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade offers 101 options and some of the biggest names are included: iShares, PowerShares, SPDR, and Vanguard. The list is a collection of Morningstar reviewed and recommended ETFs and most of them have small expense ratios (especially Vanguard ETFs). Account minimums and flexible investment options make TD Ameritrade a solid trading platform. Accounts include free CNBC TV, as well.

2. Vanguard

Expense ratios at Vanguard have always been notoriously low. They pride themselves on being affordable and smart for the average investor. This fairness easily makes Vanguard a great option for commission-free ETFs. Their group of about 45 ETFs are all free to trade within a Vanguard account. The only reason this doesn’t rank higher on the broker list is because TD Ameritrade accounts already have access to most of these funds.

ETrade Investment Platform Broker Deal - 60 Days Free Trading!3. E*Trade

E*Trade is the stalwart of online brokers. They’ve been around since the beginning. This broker offers about 90 commission-free ETFs from DB-X, Global-X, and WisdomTree. The largest concern with E*Trade is that these funds tend to have larger expense ratios. E*Trade offers an incredible mobile trade platform and terrific customer service. Opening a new account is easy to do.

Important considerations before you invest

Despite this great convenience and ease, here are three concerns to watch out for:

  1. Some ETFs are traded sparingly. This liquidity problem may lead to great differences between bid/ask prices, and a trade that isn’t in your favor. Consider the volume traded each day in the ETF you hope to invest in.
  2. Commission-free ETFs aren’t a good way to daytrade, as some companies (i.e., TD Ameritrade and E*Trade) charge an exit fee for ETFs held less than 30 days.
  3. Beware of exploitative expense ratios. ETFs, like any other fund, charge a commission for the privilege of diversification and sometimes  active management. These fees may add up over the long-term (See E*Trade as an example).

Have you ever invested in commission-free ETFs? What’s been your experience? Need some help further understanding ETFs? Read this book.

3 Grooming Mistakes That Cost You Hundreds

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3 grooming mistakes I was making for years and how I'm saving hundreds of dollars by changing my brand identification.

Brand identification is a powerful marketing tool. If I can make you relate to a particular product, I may have a customer for life. By 2015, the market for men’s grooming products will reach $33.2 billion. Companies like Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, and Unilever all have a hand in this growing segment.

In the process of creating brands we love, these businesses have capitalized on directing us to more and more expensive beauty/grooming-related items. Every day, we meet purchasing decisions that require a frugal eye. Here are 3 grooming mistakes I was making for years and how I’m saving hundreds of dollars by changing my brand identification.

1. Buying the first deodorant you know, see

The average price of deodorant costs $4-8 (DailyFinance). Approaching the aisle, and you’ll find these sticks screaming at you with bright labels and translucent containers. Sometimes there are twin packs that advertise a deal. Don’t fall for the first available or the twin pack – these aren’t deals.

Axe sprays have become popular options for adolescents. These powerful coverups double as cheap colognes. Comically, Axe products are advertised to attract women and cover up the bad natural scents, but some natural pheromones are important in the attraction game:

For that reason, excessively masking your natural scent could become a detriment (Lifehacker).

A day without my deodorant is scary – it’s a must. But unlike the movement towards gels, liquid, and spray deodorant, the classic stick is still your most frugal option. Oftentimes, I can find clearance deodorant at Target stores for under $1 per stick.

Savings: $2-6 per stick.

2. Washing with liquid soap

Demonizing the old soap bar has been a crafted, effortful, and deceitful advertising campaign conducted for years. Companies realized that liquid soap could be sold for more money, used more frequently, and dispensed inefficiently. The combination is a boon to business.

I spent years buying into these wasteful products before I realized this err in thinking. Nowadays, buying bar soap is exceptionally affordable. I purchased 12 bars of Dial for about $3. That’s a steal compared to the $3 bottle of body wash.

Savings: ~$2 per bottle.

3. Shaving with razors

Buying refill blades/cartridges for an inexpensive Gillette razor can cost you over $30. Most everyone knows that these razor refills are a complete rip off, but the solutions can seem circuitous. The simple answer is changing your shave, style.

By opting for a trim versus shave, you’ll be saving your skin and budget. Shaving is incredibly tough to that outer epidermis, and often moisturizers and post-shave creams are advised. This should all be included in the price of shaving.

Instead, use a beard trimmer and select an appropriate length. Most trimmers offer a baseline standard for the popular shadow look. For a $20 trimmer, I have saved literally hundreds of dollars in shaving over the years.

Savings: At least $300.

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