If your main goal is to kill off your mortgage quickly while paying as little interest as possible, a 15-year mortgage is tempting. Larger payments knock down your principal at a quicker rate than a traditional 30-year plan, but signing up for such a mortgage might not be the wisest course of action. [More]
personal finance
2 Pounds Away From Weight Loss Goal
By 5.6.11
I’m 2 lbs away from my weight loss goal. What’s my secret you ask? An ancient technique passed down to me by visions of an Aztec god: diet and exercise. Specifically soccer. Oodles of soccer. [More]
Most Who Opted In To Overdraft Protection Were Wrong About How It Worked
By 5.5.11
One of the results of the regulatory overhaul was that banks couldn’t automatically enroll people in “overdraft protection.” This kicked off a mammoth effort by banks to try to convince customers it was in their best interest to sign up for a program that would let them get charged $35 for overdrafting a $1 candy bar rather than go through the pain and humiliating of having a card declined. But a new survey by the Center for Responsible Lending found that most of the people who did opt in either had a misconception about how the overdraft protection, or simply wanted the ceaseless onslaught of pitches from their bank about it to stop. [More]
Tricking Yourself Into Saving By Rounding Up Every Check In Ledger?
By 5.4.11
While trying to find an article in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press archive, I found a letter from one of their readers who had a unique way of tricking herself into saving money. Whenever she writes a check, she rounds it up in the check register. When she deposits a check, she rounds it down. At the end of the year she finds she has a cache of “ghost money” that she uses to buy new shoes, go to the movies, make donations and do home improvement projects. Depending on how you look at it, this is either the dumbest savings method ever, or an incredibly smart one. [More]
US Bank Replaces "Free Checking" With "Easy" Checking (Hint: It's Not Free)
By 5.4.11
US Bank was one of the last large banks to keep offering free checking but that will be no more after May 15. All customers will migrated over from “Free Checking” to “Easy Checking.” While it’s not certain how it might be any easier, like a US Bank truck drives to your house and picks up your deposits and gives you a free lollipop, it is certain that the checking accounts will have monthly maintenance fees. But you can avoid those fees if you sign up for the right level package and abide by certain behaviors. [More]
Why Don't People Share Lawnmowers?
By 5.3.11
Let us disrupt the otherwise normal bucolic sight of everyone in the neighborhood out on a warm afternoon, mowing away at their green lawns. Why does each house need to own their own lawnmower? At around $300 a pop for a new one, they’re not cheap, and households could cut costs drastically if they shared them, but negotiating that can lead to arguments over how much each borrower should chip in, if any, and when. So the Eschaton blog muses on this and wonders, why couldn’t there be a Zipcar for tools? Well there is! They’re called tool rental libraries. [More]
Personal Finance Roundup
By 5.3.11
7 things you don’t need anymore [MSN Money] “Some tech gear has outlived its purpose. Here are some better, more convenient and less expensive choices.”
Pricing Psychology: 7 Sneaky Retail Tricks [CBS MoneyWatch] “Retailers work hard to manipulate us, tweaking price tags and offering “special” promotions to get us to spend more than we normally would.”
250+ Tips for Small Business Owners [Wise Bread] “Expert tips for sales and operations, taxes and recruitment, tools and hacks, and more!”
When Is It Better to Be Frugal? When Is It Better to Earn More? [The Simple Dollar] “There are times when frugality is the best option. There are times when focusing on increasing earnings is the best option.”
15 Web Sites for Finding Deals Online [Kiplinger] “15 Web sites we think are easy to use and will help you save money all year.”
When Should You Strategically Default?
By 5.2.11
Homeowners who owe more on their house than it’s worth face a dilemma. Should I stay or should I go now? Suze Orman tells CBS Sacramento’s Call Kurtis that those folks need to take a hard look at the value of their homes and make a tough decision. “If you own a home that is 50% underwater, 70% underwater, it will never ever, ever come back to where you purchased it.” she said. [More]
Why You Need A Reserve Fund
By 4.29.11
Every nagging, Jiminy Cricket-like personal finance voice harps on you about how you need to build up a reserve fund or else the world will end in 2012 and the Cubs will never win the World Series. But the advise hardly stands on it’s own, because it’s boring just to sit on a large sum of money without investing or spending it. [More]
Personal Finance Roundup
By 4.26.11
Why I Prefer Living Rural [The Simple Dollar] “I yearn for a life with fewer distractions and more opportunities to dig deep into the things most important to me, and I also yearn for a life with a lower cost of living and a lower need to earn a mountain of money.”
What To Do When You’ve Got Too Much Debt [The Digerati Life] “Here are few tips to look into if you are preparing to face your growing debt.”
4 money rules you should break [MSN Money] “Low interest rates and a rebounding economy make now a good time to ignore a few old-school financial axioms – and reap benefits such as more savings and less debt.”
Small companies are fertile ground for job seekers [CNN Money] “Hiring is starting to pick up again at firms with fewer than 500 employees. If you have only big-company experience, here’s how to sell yourself.”
How to Investigate Your Potential Future Boss [US News] “Here are a few ways to find out a bit more about your potential supervisor.”
Travel: Choosing The Best Credit Card
By 4.25.11
Like deciding whether to tap your Fountain of Youth or send in your Force of Nature in Magic: The Gathering, deciding which credit to play in the travel game depends on your situation and strategy. [More]
Win $5,000 Scholarship For Wearing Duct Tape To Prom
By 4.22.11
For those of us not lucky enough to be born poor or smart, there are tons of other scholarships out there that reward uniqueness, skills and “just being yourself.” For instance, there’s the $5,000 you and your date could win for wearing an outfit made of Duct Tape to prom. [More]
Getting Married For $73.34 In 1972
By 4.21.11
A far cry from the extravagance, pomp and expense of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding is the much simpler affair enjoyed by yearofshoppingdetox’s mother and father back in 1972, where they achieved eternal union for only $73.34. [More]
Personal Finance Roundup
By 4.19.11
How to Stay Relaxed During (And Make the Most of) a Job Interview [Free Money Finance] “If you rehearse the job interview in advance, you will be much more relaxed.”
25 Bizarre Scholarships [MoneyTalksNews] “Even making a peanut butter sandwich could be worth 25 grand.”
When should you discuss your salary in a job interview? [CNN Money] “Revealing your current compensation too soon could undermine your chances for higher pay. Here’s how to negotiate.”
What Your Bank Doesn’t Want You To Know [AskMen] “Personal bankers have sales quotas like any other sales person, and most of their salaries rely heavily on commission.”
6 financial benefits of marriage [MSN Money] “Getting hitched can mean not only increased income but lower costs and more opportunities to save money.”
Debt Collector Can't Harass Through Facebook Friends, Court Rules
By 4.18.11
In a precedent-setting case, a court has ruled that a debt collector can’t continue to contact a debtor’s friends and family on Facebook about her car payments, reports the Orlando Sentinel. The debt collector had already emailed, texted her, and called her at home and work, according tot he lawsuit, 23 times in one day. [More]
Deciding Whether A House Cleaning Service Is Worth It
By 4.16.11
It may seem extravagant to hire someone to clean your house, and some frugal people find it all but unthinkable to farm out such a task. [More]
Being 30 Days Late On House Payment Can Knock 100 Points Off Credit Score
By 4.15.11
Usually very closed-mouth about how it calculates scores, FICO released a whole bunch of data about how being late on your mortgage payments affects your credit score. For instance, being 30 days later on a mortgage payment can chop your 780 credit score down to 670. And a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure will hurt your score just as bad as a foreclosure if the service reports it as having a deficiency amount or an unpaid balance. Yikes! Here’s some sexy tables with more details: [More]
Wells Fargo To Test Chip Embedded Cards With Travelers
By 4.14.11
Wells Fargo is going to send 15,000 EMV chip-embedded credit cards to frequent travelers this summer, the largest US bank to make a move towards these international-style credit cards. Consumers had complained about troubles using their credit card abroad with kiosks that only accept chip cards or with merchants who refused to take cards that only have the magnetic strip. [More]
