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Check Your Money Ethics Compared with Others 2007-05-22 12:08:31 Siblings badmouthing each other because of what they thought is a wrongly divided inheritance.
Friends becoming enemies because of unpaid debt.
Prenuptial agreement problems, etc.
How do you handle money matters while considering ethics?
Check
out how you fare by trying this money and ethics quiz from CNN Money
.
[image from unerrore]
Tags: money ethics, money quiz Read more:Ethics
, Others
Nose-Deep in Debt? How to Decide Which Debt to Pay Off First 2007-05-22 00:35:00 When you have too much debt, deciding which one to pay off first can be a little tricky. However, not knowing how to prioritize can push you further into debt quicksand or even land you in jail. Generally, you should pay off the debt for which you stand to lose something and then prioritize the rest in terms of urgency and size.
If you’re still confused, here are some of the things that should appear on your debt cross-out list:
Home Mortgage or RentIf you don’t own your house, this should be one of the top priorities, especially if you have no other place to go to.
Secured loans
If you owe a company some money for which you had to put up a collateral, pay this off first. If you default, you risk losing whatever property it is you used to guarantee your debt repayment. If you don't mind losing it, then move on to the next on your list. The only caveat is that defaulting on your payment can affect your credit rating.
Credit cardsPay off your largest credit card debt first Read more:First
Light Fixture Color and Intensity May Affect Your Budget 2007-05-21 03:24:07 This is the last part of the Ways to Save Money on Using Light Fixture series.Â
Go for Dimmers
Dimming allows you manual control over the amount of energy or light consumed. Choose knobs over push-pull levers because they give you more control. Dimmers also allow you to set the exact mood which can contribute to a happier atmosphere. When you want a romantic night, you can dim the lights extensively then bring it back on if you need sufficient lighting for family-oriented activities. Dimmers allow you to put your lights to better use without spending less.
Think of Color
s and Tones
In the old days, sizes were the only varying feature for light bulbs and fixtures, but today's range of lighting products allows you to choose the color and tone as well. These are also important because they let you enjoy lesser or greater heat at the right settings and temperature to reduce need for home cooling or heating.
How to Choose the Right Light Bulb and Fixture for Your Home
Consider the sett Read more:Intensity
, Affect
7 Reasons You Need to Diversify Your Savings 2007-05-20 12:10:00 Diversify
ing your savings or investments is easy: you simply allocate your resources to what you deem the safest and most profitable businesses or financial opportunities. But why do you have to diversify in the first place?
Here are several reasons that experts cite as the most important reasons for you to diversify your savings or investments:
1. Diversification Allows You to Receive Money All Year LongWhen you pour all your money in one company, you will only receive income from it when and where the company decides to release dividends or whatever form of income you've been promised to receive. The return on profit might be extremely high, but what if you suddenly need a large amount of money now? With your money all tied-up to just one company, you could then be forced to take a high-interest mortgage or something equally undesirable.
Diversification however prevents that from happening because you could choose your investments to ensure that there won't be a rainy period at Read more:Reasons
, Savings
Use Your Mobile Phone to Find Cheap Gas 2007-05-20 02:57:13 GetMobio a cellphone application that brings RSS, movie listings and all things shiny for web maniacs has recently added a gas app that you can turn to if you’re looking for gas stations with the cheapest gas.
via Gizmodo Read more:Mobile
, Cheap
Double My Emergency Fund Challenge: Week 3 Results 2007-05-20 01:37:04 Although I have only broken even with my Week 2 results, some event made me a bit sluggish again in making up for the losses.
After a two-day vacation, I splurged a bit again using my monthly splurge allowance which prevented me from dipping into my emergency fund savings.
However, because of the vacation, I wasn’t able to accomplish lots of additional income-generating activities such as the paid reviews that I planned on making the best out of so I can contribute more to my emergency fund. But I was able to work on two more reviews before I went on vacay. Another good thing’s that I was also able to receive the payout from one of the other blog monetization services I’m using - Text Link Ads. Here’s the sweet check: $29.12.
So here are the figures for the 3rd week results of this Double My Emergency
Fund challenge:
Target = $500
Windfall = $36 (no change)
ReviewMe = $40 (+$15)
Temp Blogging = $45 (no change)
Text-Link-Ads = $29.12
Balance = $349.88 (-$44.12) Read more:Challenge
Mobile Phone Service Money Saving Tips 2007-05-17 14:27:00
Nowadays, mobile phones are fast becoming a necessity. It is offered everywhere from colleges, drug stores, and job locations and in more other places you can think of. Verizon, Sprint, Cingular, T-Mobile
- so many cellular phone providers, but which company to go to? Which company offers the best plan that's fit for you?
Once you know your needs and your budget this will help in avoiding to pay more than you should. Before choosing which company to go to and which plan to opt for. Here's a checklist of the things you have to consider.
First, know which provider offers service in your area. A good number of major cell phone providers offer services nationwide, others are more local. Bunch up a list of all the providers available in your area and their rates.
Next, think about how many times you need to use the cell phone the most, how many minutes you need to use your phone and where you will use it. Then, you must determine how much you are willing to spend each month for your Read more:Money
, Service
, Saving
, Saving Tips
Credit Score Contest 2007-05-17 13:03:00
Credit score helps financial institutions determine whether a person deserves to get a loan or not.
Being credit score conscious pays and if you’re one of those people who have realized this earlier on and your one of the competitive ones, you might want to join the What’s My Credit ScoreContest
.
It requires participants to shoot a 30-second video on the theme “Why should a college student care about their credit score.”
What’s at stake?
Grand Prize is $5000
First Prize is $3000
Second Prize is $2000
How Judging Works:
Judging of qualified submissions takes place between May 16, 2007 and July 31, 2007. A panel of judges will review each submission using the following criteria:
Originality - Uniqueness (30%)
Clarity of expression (30%)
Relevance to theme of communicating to a college audience the importance of their credit score (40%)
The highest scoring entry will be declared the Grand Prize winner, subject to verification.
Learn more about this contes Read more:Credit Score
For Richer or for Poorer: Pros and Cons of Combining Your Finances as Husband and Wife 2007-05-16 19:01:42
Thinking of combining your finances? Here are reasons why you should and why you should not:
Pros
- Finances are easier and much simpler to record and track. Your money is located in a center pool, making your earnings and expenses easier to handle. This is also effective if either husband or wife earns more than the other.
- You get better interest rates because your balances are bigger and you also get better deals with investments . You also pay fewer fees because you maintain fewer accounts.
- Either husband or wife lacks the discipline to handle their money, making combined finances the better choice.
Cons- A joint return may not only make you ineligible for certain credits, it also puts you at a tax bracket that is higher than you’re used to.
- If you’re filing separately for your federal income tax return, you might find it disadvantageous if one spouse is getting a refund and the other owes the IRS money. You might also have to pay more if either the husband or wif Read more:Husband
Investing in Stocks versus Real Estate: What Gives? 2007-05-14 22:45:41
Ideally, one would get maximized profit if he invests in real estate and stocks. However, most people have limited capital and would have to choose between the two. The famous analysis made from Money magazine concluded that stocks are the winner over real estate. But actually, the answer can depend from person to person according to specific needs and concerns of the potential investor.
If one’s investing personality is the type which wants faster returns and is more open for risk, stocks are definitely the thing that will make them more satisfied. However, for those who like low risk transactions but with greater returns that encompasses laborious caring for years, real estate would be most ideal. Money magazine, with the approval of many financial experts, approve that stocks overtake real estate returns in the long term. This is notwithstanding the uniqueness of business transactions and environmental constraints in the future which may render their predictions inaccurate.
I Read more:Investing
, Stocks
, versus
, Estate
, Real Estate
Foonz for Free Group Calling 2007-05-25 02:33:20 Do you have a big group of friends that you regularly communicate with via SMS or through calling them one by one either via landline, mobile phone or instant messaging? Or are you a club president or handling an organization that requires you to call a large number of people too often?
You might want to save your or your org’s money when you do these group calls. How? Foonz, an online application dedicated to allowing people to make group calls on any phone for free, can help.
How to use Foonz?
It’s easy to get started. Set up a free account here and add people to your foonz contact list. Then dial the “foonz number” you’ll get when you sign up and start a free group call or leave a group message!
When you start a group call, foonz instantly “invites” people to join your call by sending a text message to their cell phones. They simply dial the number in the text to automatically join your call! A group can be any size. If you don’t have time for a call, Read more:Group
, Calling
Chinese Credit Card Holders to Increase in 2007 2007-05-29 16:31:02
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China will be issuing a whopping 20 million credit cards this year compared to the 10 million it has issued last year. According to Li Weiping, ICBC credit card center head, credit card spend will also rise from 100 billion to 140 billion to 150 billion yuan this year.
Credit card use started to become common in big Chinese
cities just a few years ago and Beijing is encouraging more shops and hotels to accept them, as part of an effort to improve payment services before the 2008 Olympics.
(more…)
Click to Save or Not? - Pros and Cons of an Online Savings Account 2007-05-28 07:24:15 Online savings accounts are one of the newest trends in the world of finance, and it’s something you can get involved with fairly easily as well if you value financial management. The important question to answer, however, is whether it’s in your best interests to do so or not.
Pros of Opening an Online SavingsAccount
Before clicking OK to complete your online savings account application, make sure you weigh in the following factors to know if you’re really making the best decision in your case.
PRO: Online savings accounts are more convenient.Conventional savings accounts can’t be accessed 24/7 like online savings accounts. And even if there is an online feature provided for them, they’re not as broad as those offered by 100% online savings accounts.
Online savings accounts also allow you to pay for your bills through the Internet provided that those companies offer the same option. With an online savings account, you can make sure you’re paying for your telephone and util Read more:Click
Double My Emergency Fund Challenge: Week 4 Results 2007-05-28 04:53:44 This money saving, er, extra income searching challenge is halfway done since I’m reporting its 4th week results.
The money I was able to save this week will come from an old *AdBrite account where I found I haven’t opted to get paid yet. I gained two new advertisers on one of my blogs via *Text-Link-Ads, making me earn an extra few dollars this month.
From May 1 to this date, May 28, here’s how I fared compared to last week’s results:
Target = $500
Windfall = $36 (no change)
ReviewMe = $40 (+$15)
Temp Blogging = $45 (no change)
*Text-Link-Ads = $29.12 (+$25.12)
AdBrite = $14.85
Balance = $309.91 (-39.97) Read more:Challenge
, Emergency
Steps to Erase Negative Credit from Your Credit Report Fast 2007-05-27 08:51:00 Erroneous information is bad information and it’s especially bad news for your credit rating. If you have been refused a loan or if your credit rating is in bad shape, maybe it’s time for you to repair your credit. So now the question: can you truly erase negative credit on your credit report? If you mean legally, the answer is yes. Here’s how:
1. Obtain a copy of your credit report first.
Write or get in touch with the three credit reporting bureaus for your credit report. You’re entitled to one free report each year, so make sure to request it at the most opportune time.
2. Review your credit report.
At this point, let’s make one thing clear: only erroneous reports that show up as negative credit on your credit report may be erased. If the rest of the stuff that appear on your credit report is real, you can’t do anything about it.
Once you’ve received your credit report, examine it carefully. There’s a good chance some erroneous entry/e Read more:Erase
, Negative
Eliminating Credit Card Debt: Avoid Promo Pitfalls 2007-06-02 02:23:46 According to survey, 80% of US households hold at least one credit card. An average American earner, has 8 credit cards on his wallet, all accumulating interests and debts! It has also been found out that only 2% of credit card holders pay their entire bill each month. $574 billion are accrued as interest for all carried over debt per month! Well, it’s not easy to own 1 card, all the more managing 8 credit cards!
So how do you avoid having to resort credit card debt consolidation services or credit card debt counseling? SELF-CONTROL!
But what if it’s too late and you’ve already amassed headache-inducing credit card debt? Read on.
Ask your credit companies to help you lower your interest rate. You can phone these companies and request them to lessen your interest rates by negotiating and setting some limits. You can do this every six months; target the months of December or June.
Seeking the help of credit companies to lower your interest rates can also be disadvantageous. Read more:Avoid
, Promo
Buying a Home: Down Payment Saving Tips 2007-06-01 06:04:00 You finally decided that it is about time to get a house. You have your dream house in mind but you don’t know how you’re going to buy it. You don’t know if you have the financial capacity to purchase a house of your own. You are suddenly overwhelmed with the things to do.
Sure, it is difficult to buy a house. But there are steps you can follow so that making that move becomes manageable in smaller steps. One of the most important part of making buying a home a rewarding endeavor is preparing your finances, which include saving for a downpayment.
To start saving for a down payment, it is important that you set a goal. You can do this better if you consult your realtor to discuss honestly and realistically your expectations and budget. Stay within your budget and determine how much cash you need for the initial payment.
Write to Start to Save for Down Payment
the Right Way
Get a piece of paper and start jotting down all the incoming and outgoing cash within a month in two separate Read more:Buying
, Saving
, Saving Tips
Assets and Liabilities - The Two Starting Points for Effective Financial Management 2007-05-31 09:09:54 The long overdue post on Assets
and Liabilities as I’ve mentioned from the How to Calculate Net Worth discussion.
The foundation of financial wisdom for anyone will always be the basic accounting equation: equity or owner’s equity equals asset minus liability.
Assets are what you own - regardless of the manner you’ve acquired them. Liabilities are what you owe - regardless of whom you owe them to and again, the manner you’ve acquired them. Owner’s equity is what’s left of your assets when the total value of your liabilities has been taken out.
Personal assets can be acquired by your own money or borrowed funds. Assets increase when you earn more money or something with value like cars, homes, equipment, and jewelries. Personal assets decrease when your liabilities increase. When you borrow money, you obtain a debt or liability.
School loans, credit card debt, and mortgages are all good examples of liabilities. Your savings, properties in your name, and the cash in your Read more:Points
, Financial
, Management
Dos and Dont’s of Using a Credit Card 2007-06-05 06:08:45 Do you really know how to use your credit card properly? Not the steps on how to get it out of your wallet and giving it to the cashier or swiping it you… I mean, how to use a credit card so that you don’t get your credit card debt piling up?
Here are the do’s and don’ts that sum it up if you want to avoid getting into debt trap caused by credit card abuse:
Do’s:
You feel like your cash isn’t safe when you go to some place that’s why you’d rather bring with you your credit card.
You purchase a big ticket item as long as you pay it off in the short term.
Don’ts:
Your paycheck won’t be arriving until the next few weeks so you think it’s fine if you use your credit card now for your impulsive lunch out.
You let your friends make you use your credit card for their purchases when you have an impulsive lunch out AND shopping spree with you. Read more:Credit Card
Top 10 High Yield Savings Accounts 2007-06-04 07:35:00 If you are looking for a list of high yield savings accounts, eMoneyCentral has a frequently updated list. High yield savings accounts are the best if you are looking for an account that will earn you most interest over time. Emergency funds and down payment savings are best placed in these bank accounts.
As of this writing, here are on the top 10 in the list of high yield savings accounts which includes money market accounts provided by eMoneyCentral:
1. Everbank Yield
Pledge Money Market (3 month introductory promo) has an APY of 6.01% and a balance requirement of $1.00 - $50,000 to obtain APY.
2. FNBO Direct Online Savings
account has an APY of 6.00% and a balance requirement of $1.00 to obtain APY.
3. Gloucester County Federal Savings GCF CyberSaver has a 90-day promo of 5.50% APY and a balance requirement of $100+ to obtain APY.
4. Countrywide Bank Savingslink has an APY of 5.40% and a balance requirement of $50,000 - $2,499,999 to obtain APY.
5. AmTrust Direct e-Money Market ha Read more:Accounts
, Savings Accounts
$200,000 as Retirement Fund for the Last 30 Years of My Life 2007-06-03 14:02:26 Binary Dollar posted an open mic discussion about How Much Money Does One Need to Retire. When I have read the comments just a few hours ago, I’ve noticed that many responded that they need millions of dollars to retire comfortably. Now although I haven’t really given much thought about it in the past, it only took me a few minutes to compute and decide to leave a response that I only need $200k to spend for the last few decades of my life.
Why? Simply because I live in the Philippines. Although the US dollar has depreciated considerably this year - it’s down to Php46 per dollar compared to Php55 per dollar last year I think, a dollar grows 46 times here! So if I have $200,000 when I reach the age of 30, my dream retirement age, I’ll have 9.2 million pesos, which when divided into two (inflation issues) is still approximately 4 million pesos. Four million pesos will allow me to have about 11,000 pesos ($239) for monthly expenses, which I think is more than enou Read more:Years
Double My Emergency Fund Challenge: Week 5 Results 2007-06-03 03:48:00
Things are getting rosier and rosier each day for me. Good karma from not being so stingy when it comes to sharing what you have occasionally is so speedy that I’m almost done with this challenge although I still have three weeks left to complete doubling my emergency fund of $500. Yeah, maybe that’s the reason why I’m not encountering as much difficulty as I’ve expected in surmounting this financial management challenge I’ve set up for myself. So what’s this jubilation all about?
The original plan is to get most of the funds from the two new blogging jobs I got and other blog monetization methods. What happened is just before the month of May ended, I was able to close deals with two new clients that have contacted me to do contract work - one data entry tasks and one on SEO content writing. So I can include my payout from them as extra income to boost my emergency fund savings!
Now take a look at my fifth week results for this Double My Emergency Read more:Challenge
Check Your Credit Score Online for Free 2007-06-08 05:07:18 Your credit score indicates the status of your finances and will play a major part when you decide to take out a loan someday. When you get your credit report, you can also ask for your credit score. But to get it, you’ll need to pay about $7 to $15. These days, there are certain resources that can give you your credit score at no cost. Here’s how to get your credit score for free:
Free online resources
There are websites that offer to give you your credit score for free. Sites such as CreditReport.com and FreeCreditReport.com offer this service at no charge.
CreditReport.com, for example, allows you a free copy of your credit score and your credit report for 30 days. You simply have to sign up for their credit monitoring service online. Within this period, you’ll get updates of certain changes in your credit. When the period is over, you will be automatically billed $9.95 a month.
FreeCreditReport.com also offers free access to your credit score, but you’ll hav Read more:Check
, Score
, Credit Score
List of Credit Card Companies with Zero Fee Balance Transfers 2007-06-06 01:26:00
Tired of your old credit card’s high interest rates and annual fees? Why not transfer your balance to another credit card, one that offers better interest rates and zero fee balance transfers? You get to enjoy the same privileges of having a credit card but can rest easy at night knowing your interest rates aren’t draining money away from your pocket. Here are some of the credit card companies that offer zero fee balance transfers you might want to get in touch with.
For credit cards that offer zero balance transfer fees of up to 12 months, try:
Discover Platinum Card
Citi Platinum Select Mastercard
CitiBusiness Premier Pass Card
For credit cards that offer zero balance transfer fees of up to 9 months, try:
Citi Professional Mastercard
Other credit cards worth looking at:
Discover Platinum Clear Card
Citi Upromise Card
CitiBusiness Card
CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network
Discover Miles Card
All these cards offer zero balance transfer fees, so you can switch credit car Read more:Companies
, Balance
, Transfers
, Credit Card
, Credit Card Companies
Personal Finance Carnival Finds 2007-06-11 09:55:18 I joined a personal finance carnival which was hosted by Getting Green.
Here are the money advice gems I’ve found:
10 Ways to Find Hidden Cash in Your Budget
Could Your Family Live on One Income
Personal
Finance Advice Young People Don’t Want to Hear
There are still many of ‘em financial management tips if you’d like to read more. Here is the complete list of money articles that made it to the minimalist edition. Read more:Carnival
Double My Emergency Fund Challenge: Week 6 Results (Mission Accomplished) 2007-06-10 07:15:00
As predicted on my Week 5 results, I was able to double my emergency fund as early as on the first week of June. I received the $200 payout from my two new blogs. Here are the figures:
Target = extra $500
Windfall = $36 (no change)
ReviewMe = $40 (no change)
Temp Blogging = $45 (no change)
Text-Link-Ads = $54.24 (no change)
AdBrite = $14.85 (no change)
Data Entry Contract Work = $35
Writing Contract Work = $155.55
Blogs = $200
Total Extra Income from May to June 1st Week = $580.64
Emergency
Fund Total = $1080.64
Setting up this financial management challenge is a surefire way to help one get his or her financial act together. Right when I started with the goal of doubling my emergency fund which was sitting quite lazily in my savings account, I became very eager to get hold of as many part-time gigs or any source of extra funds I can get. The common trip to the mall splurging has become a once-in-a-while affair, too, making me take a tighter grip on my earnings. It was a fun and defin Read more:Challenge
, Mission
, Mission Accomplished
Expensr: Monitor Your Expenses 2007-06-13 23:10:33
A new online financial management application aims to help people who’d like to track their expenses easily - Expensr.
You can fill in your every penny you spend and what have you spent it on to come up with a pie chart that will help you in analyzing (Category Analysis) where your money goes. You can even import bank data to your Expensr account to easily record bank transactions.
Signing up for an Expensr account was a breeze. If you’d like to learn more about it, here is a demo of this financial management tool.
Tags: Expensr, track expenses Read more:Monitor
, Expenses
Financial Woes: Give Your 2 Cents 2007-06-13 11:23:00
For financial management gurus out there, who knows a thing or two about money matters from theories or straight from their own financial experiences, you might want to share some no-nonsense money advice on how to handle the following problems:
Leo Babauta of Zen Habits ask the readers about their Best Advice for Getting Out of Debt.
Julie Rains of WiseBread invites everyone to share their Worst Financial
Mistakes
SavingAdvice wishes to save a reader from a gift-giving dilemma and asks the readers to share tips on How to Choose Appropriate Gifts that Won’t Need You to Break the Bank.
[image from kowchow]
Tags: money question, choosing gifts, mistake, debt
Get Rid of Big Credit Card Debt: Balance Transfer 2007-06-12 21:46:22
Find a zero percent or lower interest rate credit card where you can transfer your balance. By the time the debt is safely owed by another credit company, a new grace period will be charged less or even zero interest. This can thus be a sane move when you are faced with large credit card debt. Balance
transfer on credit card is available to anyone who has a social security number and a mailbox.
Balance transfer is actually one of the many strategies that a savvy consumer does to reduce his credit card debt. It can free you from paying all the balances and interests incurred from an old card. Using this technique, you can open new accounts which offer transfer of balance when an old one expires.
However, credit card balance transfer will always be dependent on your credit worthiness. Your ability to pay additional charges will be screened and gauge. If you’re planning to apply for a balance transfer, be sure that your old account will be closed immediately. Usually, acquiring two cre Read more:Balance Transfer
Zero Credit Card Debt Challenge 2007-06-11 20:41:00
After the emergency fund challenge, which was very successful in motivating me to become more well-disciplined in handling my finances and in being more productive with my time for the benefit of my finances, I’m launching another money challenge for myself, the Zero Credit Card Debt Challenge
.
I am in the process of eliminating credit card debt chunk by chunk every month. The money I owe amounts to an approximate of $850. Why didn’t I use my emergency fund to get rid of this credit card debt? The reason’s here.
How do I plan to finish paying off all of that $850 and how much time am I giving myself? Same way as how I earned money for my emergency fund challenge - being thrifty and getting jobs for extra income. Those two are the methods that I found to be very effective, especially the extra job thing, so why not just rinse and repeat, right? However, this time I’m giving myself three months to come up with that extra $850. An extra $850 may not be that much o
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