personal finance

Personal Finance Roundup

Personal Finance Roundup

The 25 Documents You Need Before You Die [Wall Street Journal] “Here is a rundown of the most important documents you’ll need to have signed, sealed and delivered.”

10 Costs That Can Ruin Your Retirement Savings [Smart Money] “Unknown fees in your 401(k) plans, IRAs and other retirement accounts can make a world of difference in your overall investment returns.”

What You Should Never Say in a Job Interview [US News] “Here are 10 things you never want to say in an interview.”

7 Reasons To Review Or Revise Your Will [Investopedia] “Read on to find out what life events should prompt you to re-examine your will and the consequences of letting this important document collect dust.”

6 Myths about Renter’s Insurance – and How to Save [MoneyTalksNews] “Who will replace [your belongings] if something happens [to your apartment]? Hint: Not your landlord.”

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Why Smart People Do Dumb Things With Money

Why Smart People Do Dumb Things With Money

Financial savvy and intelligence don’t necessarily come in a package deal. Money skills are the product of attention to detail, logic and experience, and a shortfall in any of those categories can lead to financial disaster for brainiacs. [More]

Spend Only 1 Hour/Wk On Your Money By Automating All Your Accounts

Spend Only 1 Hour/Wk On Your Money By Automating All Your Accounts

Here’s a 12-minute video that shows you how you can put all your money on autopilot and end up spending only an hour a week managing your accounts. [More]

Personal Finance Roundup

Personal Finance Roundup

4 Unusual Places to Stash Retirement Funds [US News] “Here are four savings vehicles that offer something unique to the retirement saver.”

4 Sites to Check Before Buying a New Car [Money Talks News] “If you check out all of these and still like the car you’ve targeted, you can buy with more confidence.”

25 Great Movies About Money [Wise Bread] “The best 25 that show a variety of themes across many different genres and ratings.”

10 fees that can wreck your retirement savings [Market Watch] “10 of the fees that can eat away at your retirement savings.”

10 Things Shopping Malls Won’t Tell You [Smart Money] “Come hungry, stay late, and pay no attention to those ‘for rent’ signs.”

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Buying A Stolen Credit Card Is Like Picking Out Candy

Buying A Stolen Credit Card Is Like Picking Out Candy

NPR shows just how easy it is for crooks to buy thousands of stolen credit card numbers and convert them into useable credit cards using a simple desktop setup. [More]

Money Mistakes And How To Rebound From Them

Money Mistakes And How To Rebound From Them

Unless you’ve got unlimited resources, you’ve probably made a major mistake with your money at some point that you’ve come to regret and learn from. But no matter how poor you are with money, there’s pretty much always a way to recover and become financially stronger than before. [More]

High-Yield Checking Isn't Dead, You Just Have To Look Harder

High-Yield Checking Isn't Dead, You Just Have To Look Harder

You would almost think that high-yield checking was dead from the massive pullback over the past few years from previous leaders like HSBC, ING Direct and Smartypig, but it’s possible to find banks offering checking accounts still offering rates as high as 4% and even 6%, as long as you follow the new, stricter, rules. [More]

U.S. Bank Tests EMV Chip Cards For International Travelers

U.S. Bank Tests EMV Chip Cards For International Travelers

Good news for Americans who like to go to other countries in the world. U.S. Bank is going to roll out EMV chip cards to 20,000 FlexPerks Visa cardholders this month, adding steam to a small but growing push to get traveling Americans credit cards that can work in the “chip and PIN” systems prevalent in Europe and beyond. [More]

Personal Finance Roundup

Personal Finance Roundup

7 steps to clean up your credit report [MSN Money] “Errors are common: Here’s how to find and fix them.”

10 Things Life Insurers Won’t Tell You [Smart Money] “The coverage you can skip, and what’s buried in the fine print.”

Is a debt-free life the best way to live? [CNN Money] “In a word, no.”

How to Really Manage Your Credit [Wall Street Journal] “Meet the world’s most financially self-controlled man.”

Financial Advice Gleaned From a Day in the Hot Seat [NY Times] “The value to me was that the members challenged everything about my assumptions on saving and spending.”

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Which Personal Finance Tracking Software Is The Best?

Which Personal Finance Tracking Software Is The Best?

Although the prevalence of online account access makes financial software tracking less crucial now than it was, say, a decade ago, a detailed record of your spending is still key to maintaining a budget. [More]

IRS Gives $110,000 To Wrong Guy, Now He's In Jail

IRS Gives $110,000 To Wrong Guy, Now He's In Jail

A California father is in jail and faces charges after the IRS deposited $110,000 in his account that should have gone to another taxpayer, reports KCAL. [More]

AMEX Unveils Low-Cost Prepaid Card Without Hidden Fees

AMEX Unveils Low-Cost Prepaid Card Without Hidden Fees

The prepaid card industry is notorious for preying on poorer consumers with hidden fees for just about every thing you use it for. There’s even fees for not using them, in the form of inactivity fees. So it’s an unexpected breath of fresh air that American Express is rolling out a new prepaid card with very few fees and a pretty straightforward approach, at least for consumers. [More]

How Hackers Stole 200,000+ Citi Accounts Just By Changing Numbers In The URL

How Hackers Stole 200,000+ Citi Accounts Just By Changing Numbers In The URL

Details have emerged has to how hackers were able to steal over 200,000 Citi customer accounts, including names, credit card numbers, mailing addresses and email addresses. It turns out quite easily, in fact. All they had to do was log in as a customer and change around a few numbers into the browser’s URL bar, NYT reports. Facepalm. [More]

Personal Finance Roundup

Personal Finance Roundup

When A Career Veers Off Track [Wall Street Journal] “10 ways to avoid [career derailment].”

Many of us won’t be able to retire until our 80s [Marketwatch] “You’ll probably have to work much longer than you anticipated.”

Personal financial advice from Barack Obama [CNN Money] “Don’t spend all your money.”

The Real Secret to ‘Market Beating’ Returns [Smart Money] “Some investment pros are touting stock-picking prowess by comparing their returns, including dividends, to the S&P’s 500-stock index — without dividends.”

How to eat when you’re really broke [MSN Money] “Forget fast food, processed foods and eating out frequently.”

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Avoid Credit Card Problems When Traveling Overseas

Avoid Credit Card Problems When Traveling Overseas

Most credit cards in Europe have an embedded PIN chip in them, called an EMV card. Almost no American credit cards do. This causes big problems for Americans traveling in Europe but there are a few ways to minimize the hassle. [More]

ATM Can Tell If You're Lying

ATM Can Tell If You're Lying

Leave it to the Russians. Their biggest retail bank, Sberbank, is testing out a new kind of ATM that has a built-in lie detector. [More]

Breach: Citi Says Hackers Stole Hundreds Of Thousands Of Credit Cards

Breach: Citi Says Hackers Stole Hundreds Of Thousands Of Credit Cards

Roughly 200,000 Citi customers’ credit cards were stolen by hackers in a breach the bank just announced today. The data included names, credit card numbers, mailing addresses and email addresses. [More]

Obama: Personal Finances And The Nation's Finances Aren't So Different

Obama: Personal Finances And The Nation's Finances Aren't So Different

Earlier today, President Obama popped into the White House Personal Finance Online Summit, where our own Meg Marco was in attendance. Speaking to the small group of writers, the president offered up his advice on personal finance. [More]