Can you have too many LinkedIn contacts? November 23, 2009

A while back I was talking to a colleague during a company softball game.  I pointed out that we’re now officially “linked in”, since I got an email from LinkedIn saying she accepted my invite.  She commented that she was surprised to see how many contacts I have on that site.  Last I looked, I had 307 contacts.  I agree, that seems like quite a few!

There seem to be a few main purposes to having a profile and storing your connections with LinkedIn.  It’s easy to keep all your business contacts in one place.  You can still keep in touch with people, even if you only have their old email address.  And there are plenty of ways to network and find new opportunities for yourself or others.

But can you have too many LinkedIn contacts?  When I first joined LinkedIn, I went a little bit overboard with the invites and connection requests.  I think I just wanted my colleagues (mostly fellow classmates at that time) to get involved in the site and see what it’s about.  Now that things have settled down, I tend to get or send a few invites every few months.  But I’ve started to wonder if all these contacts should remain on my list.

How closely connected in real life do we have to be for me to consider you a LinkedIn-quality contact?  Is it better to have more people you’re aren’t very close to on there so you’re connected to and via more people?  Or do you want to pare it down, since you’re likely to be judged by the company you keep?

I’m thinking of removing people who I added mostly from name recognition (classmates that I met once or twice), and keeping actually friends and colleagues on there.

What do you think?  The more, the better?  Or keep only the best?

I just started a Down Payment Fund! November 6, 2009

Well, I decided to do something with my checking account balance.  Most personal finance people I know have the bare minimum in their checking accounts, keeping as much money as possible in interest bearing accounts/investments or using excess to pay off debts.  I’m a bit of a nervous nelly, so I keep more in checking than I need to.  I suppose if I watched all of my accounts very closely, I could figure out the minimum amount to keep in there.  But I think I just need to pare it down.  I’ve decided to do something about that.

I opened a “sub-account” with ING Direct.  To be honest, it’s not actually a sub-account at all, it’s a new account with the bank (and I already had a savings account with them).  But I hear a lot of people referring to them as sub-accounts.  Anyway, I transferred $1000 into my new account (named Down Payment!), and have set up monthly automatic contributions from my lame-o checking to my awesome down payment fund

Why a down payment fund?  Because I realized I have just been saving for the sake of saving, and if I have an actual “goal” in mind (i.e. buying a house), I might be more motivated to save.  And, well, my older, married sister just closed on a house today.  And that’s pretty darn exciting.  I know I don’t want to buy a house just yet, but I don’t want money (or lack thereof) to be the sole reason for my decision in the future.  Granted, I’ll probably need a pretty high goal amount.  If I want to put 20% down on houses around here (which are at least $250k), I’ll need to stash away $50k.  Well, it’s a start!

Yes, the interest rates on savings accounts aren’t what they used to be.  But just moving that money to an account that provides some interest, and getting into the habit of putting money towards that big goal in the distance is a good start.

(As always, if you’re interested in opening an account with ING Direct, let me know.  I do still have ING referrals. If you open an account with at least $250, you get an extra $25, and I get an extra $10. Free money! Leave me a comment or shoot me an email if you want one!)