Retirement

Test Your Personal Finance Skills With These Quizzes

Kiplinger has two quizzes named "Financial Truth or Bunk?", and they go through some of the more popular tips you've heard about personal finance, including lines like:

You can't lose money investing in bonds.
Stay-at-home moms or dads need life insurance, too.
Don't buy a red car — it'll cost more to insure.
Dollar-cost averaging boosts investment returns.
The percentage of stock in your portfolio should equal 100 minus your age.

More »

11:14 AM on Thu Oct 9 2008
By Chris Walters
4,857 views, 38 comments

Most discussed floraposte: I got an utterly bogus 83%, including scoring correctly on one question that I didn't understand any of. However, more »

banking errors

USAA Temporarily Deletes 14k Roth IRA, But Won't Explain Why

USAA just pulled a huge mindf#@k on Travis and his wife, and now he wants to talk to someone high enough up the chain to find out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. His wife "went online yesterday to check on some transactions and discovered her IRA balance was $0. Six hours prior to that, her balance was $14,000." When she tried to find out what had happened, the first CSR she spoke with told her she had no IRA account, and the second CSR told her to refresh her browser. Yeah, you know how these newfangled browswers are always wiping out retirement accounts. More »

10:28 PM on Tue Sep 23 2008
By Chris Walters
13,184 views, 70 comments

Most discussed kamikasee: I also do banking / retirement / insurance with USAA, and have for several years. This seems totally out more »

aarp

AARP Really Really Needs Members

Adam's mom recently received an AARP invitation, which is not surprising since she's nearing fifty. But we think AARP may want to pass a better filter over the address lists they're buying, because a few days later Adam received the same invitation. Maybe AARP is trying to expand to seniors and their admirers—sort of like a backwards NAMBLA. More »

5:46 PM on Tue Aug 26 2008
By Chris Walters
5,918 views, 84 comments

Most discussed 3drage: I get AARP mailings all the time. I probably said I was 200 in some survey at some point more »

personal finance

4 Unusual Ways To Save Money

BusinessWeek has put together one of those accursed slideshows of 25 ways to save money, and while a lot of them are things you've heard before (use credit cards wisely! buy generic or used!), there are a few less common tips that you might not have considered. Here are four that caught our attention. More »

9:39 AM on Thu Aug 21 2008
By Chris Walters
23,618 views, 67 comments

Latest by trujunglist: @mrgenius: Agreed. If your friends are constantly asking you to hurt your bottom line to help theirs but they never get more »

money

Personal Finance Roundup

Using Your Health Savings Account as a "Super Roth" Investment Vehicle [Free Money Finance] "If you can afford to delay using your HSA funds and instead leave them invested, your payoff in retirement will be substantial."

Winning the Battle Against Low Quality Generics While Still Saving Money [The Simple Dollar] "The next time you go to the grocery store, actively replace all of your regular purchases with the low-end generics."

7 Nasty Airline Fees and How to Avoid Them [Smart Money] "Here are seven instances when fees are assessed and how to avoid them."

10 ways to spot 401(k) abuse [Bankrate] "Warning signs to help employees discover if their 401(k) contributions are being misused."

9 Things You Should Not Buy New [Crosswalk] "Here are the top 9 things you
will be better off buying used."

— free/ MONEY FINANCE
(Photo: Kevin Dean )

2:22 PM on Mon Aug 18 2008
By freemoneyfinance
950 views, 12 comments

estate planning

Are You Ready For Death? Financially Speaking.

According to Bankrate, 57% of Americans do not have a will, leaving their personal finance, guardianship of children, and many other end-of-life decisions in the hands of strangers (state judges.) The lynchpin of a solid estate plan is having a will, but Vanguard suggests you also need the following assembled to leave your loved ones in good shape following your death: More »

3:01 PM on Thu Jul 31 2008
By freemoneyfinance
5,069 views, 53 comments

Latest by Eyebrows McGee: @BytheSea: Generally your debts die when you do, unless someone else was a party to the debt (as in, their more »

retirement

Why You're Going To Need A Million Bucks To Retire

Over at ABC News columnist David McPherson is responding to some reader backlash stemming from an article in which he used an example of somebody retiring with $500,000 in an IRA. The readers accused him of being out of touch with reality. Well, rather than apologize, he's upped the ante. Now he says you'll need $1 million to retire. More »

1:31 PM on Tue Jul 22 2008
By Meg Marco
12,850 views, 101 comments

Latest by Jim: @Bladefist: Ya I've considered that. My savings account earns 2.5% right now. Before the prime rate crap, it was earning more »

money

Personal Finance Roundup

8 ways to ruin your chances to retire [Bankrate] "You can stay shackled to a job until your last gasp if you follow these steps."

Sold out? No problem [CNN Money] "Here's how to score the hottest ticket in town without paying an arm and a leg."

New Rules for the Age of High Energy Prices [Yahoo Personal Finance] "Here are some rules to help you adjust to the new realities of high energy costs."

Getting Around Airlines' New Minimum-Stay Requirements [Smart Money] "Here's what fliers need to know to avoid getting hit by an airlines' minimum-stay requirements."

Preserve Your Savings for Life [Kiplinger] "New ways to spread your nest egg over the next 30 years."

— FREE MONEY FINANCE
(Photo: striatic)

12:00 PM on Thu Jul 3 2008
By freemoneyfinance
1,296 views, 4 comments

unauthorized overdraft fees

Overdraft Fees Are Trapping Consumers On Social Security In A Cycle Of Debt

The Center For Responsible Lending has put together a report that examines the disastrous effect of overdraft fees on Americans who depend on Social Security for all or part of their income. Despite the fact that they've had checking accounts all their lives (and presumably know what they're doing), each year older Americans pay 4.5 billion dollars in overdraft fees— and on average they actually pay more in fees than they receive in credit when the overdraft is triggered by a debit card transaction. More »

9:51 AM on Tue Jun 24 2008
By Meg Marco
6,308 views, 104 comments

Latest by tinpuck: I don't think the point of this article was that Mary can't manage her money it's more that people with more »

golden parachutes

Fifteen Shocking CEO Severances

Here's another tip for our Make the Most of Unemployment guide: if you're going to get fired, be a CEO. HR World has rounded up 15 of the most shocking golden parachutes given out by big corporations to their departing leaders. Some of our favorites, inside. More »

4:07 PM on Fri Jun 20 2008
By Alex Chasick
11,867 views, 64 comments

Latest by Meltdown: @Bladefist: No they didn't. Often, they disregard stock holder's opinions on golden parachutes. And stock holders are ''owners''. So we have more »

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