If there’s one upside to the economic mess we’ve been in for literally years now, it’s that interest rates are near an all-time low. If you’re keeping cash in a high-interest savings account, you probably wish rates would go up. But for people looking to finance a house, car, education or other major purchase, you [...]
A few links below got me thinking. I’ve written about this before, but it’s amazing how much our society – particularly corporate society – values credentials, versus knowledge. I have done enough phone interviews with clients to realize that they are far more interested in my credentials than what I actually know. They want to [...]
knowledge versus credentials, and links is an original article from the website brip blap.
Your car insurance bill is one that you’ll be paying every month for a long time. So even if it’s just a little each month, anything you can do to save money on auto insurance will add up over time.
There are many different factors that determine how much your insurance company will charge for the amount [...]
Going back into the archives, I came across a frugal tip that I always recommend to people who ask for advice about saving money, that is to simply “write it down“. I noticed within that article that I didn’t get into the details of tracking spending, or the many ways to do it. The right [...]
Other than deciding to get married, buying a house is probably the biggest financial decision you’ll make in your life. Many of us sink an enormous amount of time and effort into finding the perfect spouse, and rightly so. But how many people put enough thought into finding the right home mortgage?
I recently started contributing to [...]
How are you saving for retirement? I share some thoughts on retirement annuities.
I admit that I have a penchant for ranting about the misuse and abuse of annuities. And, yes, you have heard and read others doing the same. But, we have all also conceded that annuities can have a place in our portfolios [...]
Our week-long vacation in Aruba is starting to wrap up. The bad news is that the weather in Aruba has been much worse than anticipated. We’ve had about 3 hours of sun all week. I went swimming as many times as I’ve had birds poop on me: once. Fortunately, a bird [...]
Related posts:
One of the rules of the Blue Cash card is that you won’t earn cash back on spending if you have a late payment. Until now I had thought you lost your cashback for the whole year if your payment was late just once. Seemed kind of drastic to me but I figured that’s how [...]
Can you really fight or avoid foreclosure? I’m beginning to doubt it but am trying to remain hopeful. I continue to work with the Housing Authority and Bank of America but haven’t made any actual progress. While they have not foreclosed on my home yet, we have not yet reached a meaningful [...]
In case you didn’t notice, the price of gold has broken some new highs lately. The latest rally was fueled by comments made after the Fed meeting early this week, which were interpreted by some as signs that more greenbacks will be printed in order to boost the economic recovery that has slowed dramatically in [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
Special bonus offers
Going away to college can be a lot of fun but it can also be kind of stressful thanks to all the responsibilities that you suddenly have to bear. One of big stresses when you’re settling into college life is figuring out how to pay for it all. Not just the big college tuition bill [...]
A couple weeks back I wrote a favorable review of Rob Carricks latest book with a book giveaway. Out of the entries from Facebook and commenters, the randomly chosen winner is ….Bernie Klunder!
If you use Facebook, you can follow the Million Dollar Journey community here! Or if you prefer twitter, you can find me here.
Weekend [...]
When you embark on a trip, the first thing you do is map out your journey towards your destination. In the same way, when you begin the journey of taking control of your finances, you must figure out where you want to go. Financial goals are keys to determining this. There are [...]
Financial Goal Setting: The First Step To Control Your Finances
Lately, I’ve been working on planning for college expenses for our three kids (ages 1, 3, and 4). We stopped contributing to their 529 plans a few years ago, as I felt they were fully funded. Now, I’m working on optimizing the investments and planning for all the tax impacts and strategies. At this point [...]
With rates currently at all-time lows, the boom in mortgage refinancing has continued to pick up steam. 30-year mortgages can be had for rates under 4.5% while many 15-year mortgages are going for less than 4%. If you’re considering an adjustable rate mortgage, you can go even lower than that. Refinancing your mortgage has long [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
Special bonus offers
Health Care Reform is Here and So Are Changes to Your Health Insurance It seems like it was just yesterday that we were debating health care reform, but on September 23 we hit the six-month anniversary of this reform and it also signals milestone where some changes begin to take effect. The changes you’ll personally [...]
About the Author: Jeremy is a retirement planning specialist and founder of Generation X Finance and the guide to Financial Planning at About.com. To learn more, follow Jeremy on Twitter.
The TrueEarnings card is one of the latest American Express rewards cards covered recently on the credit card section of this site. Several months ago I had promised a monthly review of the latest additions to that section but then we decided to try and sell our house and all my plans went out the window.
In [...]
While discussing consulting rates with two companies recently, I was forced to face an interesting question – when times are bad should I be willing to accept reduced rates? Should people who work for salaries be willing to accept pay cuts for new jobs – or even worse, pay cuts in their current job? Could [...]
should I take a pay cut? is an original article from the website brip blap.
The following guest post is from Elle, who writes for Couple Money – a personal finance blog about building financial freedom together.
Each family has to deal with finances their own way, but there seems to be some common threads among all of us. A successful marriage isn’t easy and it often involves learning to adjust to circumstances, including financial [...]
Post by Frugal Dad
I’ve asked this question before: is the economic downturn over?
First, we hear about Warren Buffett’s assurances that there’s no double dip recession ahead of us. Next, we get some official word that the recession is over. Apparently, it ended last summer, in June 2009. So does that mean that this past year, [...]
Student Loan Debt is a Looming Crisis We often teach our kids that going to school is their ticket to becoming successful. In order to send them to school, we willingly make big financial sacrifices. The debt accrued during the process is typically discounted as a necessary evil because their education represents an investment in [...]
About the Author: Jeremy is a retirement planning specialist and founder of Generation X Finance and the guide to Financial Planning at About.com. To learn more, follow Jeremy on Twitter.
This is a guest post by Ramsay at moneyedup.com. You can enter to win $500 by subscribing to their blog. Visit moneyedup.com to enter the giveaway.
In the past, investing money was limited to a few vehicles, most of which were accessible by working with a local company. Today, however, the Internet opens numerous investment options [...]
If you get paid twice per month, there are only 7 paydays left until Christmas! Last year, we shared some ways to prepare for holiday spending. This year, I’m hoping to get started (and finished) even earlier. Here are 5 things I’m doing to smooth out holiday spending and usher in December with low stress [...]
This is a guest column by regular contributor Clark.
The last article on corporate bonds looked at corporate credit ratings/risk and Part IV dealt with some metrics to remember when purchasing individual bonds. In this part, we’ll look at other risks and touch upon the issue of corporate governance.
Other Risks
Government bonds protect an investor from credit [...]
Although it seems like many of our current cards have higher interest rates than they used to, it’s still possible to find new credit cards with low introductory rates. One such low APR credit card is the Citi Platinum Select MasterCard. In fact, it’s a balance transfer card that has one of the [...]
Citibank MasterCard For Balance Transfers: Citi Platinum Select
