Carnival of Personal Finance #119

Carnival of Personal Finance #119

Welcome to the 119th Carnival of Personal Finance! There were 89 articles that were submitted in time for this week’s carnival, of which 67 are presented here. (If you missed the deadline, your entry was left for future consideration.) If you would like to submit an entry for next week’s carnival, please see the submission guidelines and the Carnival of Personal Finance’s home page. Next week’s carnival will be hosted by My Retirement Blog. Now, on to the carnival.

First, here are my favorites:

My Two Dollars presents Do You Ever Spend Money On Anything? (Hint: he’s not cheap.)

Mrs. Micah presents Charitable giving vs. the value of compounding and debt reduction—a dilemma and temporary solution. She searches for balance between giving and the power of compounding.

GRACEful Retirement presents Mean Ole Grace. What’s the point of reducing debt if you can’t have some fun along the way?

Money, Matter, and More Musings presents A Quick Financial Awareness Wake-up Call. A 20-point checklist to keep you on track. You have probably read about these issues many times on personal finance blogs, but how many times have you acted on them?

Plonkee Money presents Interviewing Fabulously Broke. What is a modern nomad? Hear what fabulously broke has to say on her lifestyle.

Next, it’s puzzle time
Since I tend to view personal finance as both fun (like a game) and challenging, I decided to throw in a crossword puzzle as part of this week’s carnival. Each of the clues listed relates in some way to at least one of the posts from each category. Have fun, and happy reading. (Note that the carnival is listed in a traditional format immediately following the puzzle.)

ACROSS 2 A synonym for equality. 4 An item acquired at less than what you might typically be expected to pay. 5 Not involving active participation. 6 A mule is an example of this. 8 A liability that must be repaid. 11 A series of back and forth discussions that result in an agreement. 13 The U.S. ____ sells American Eagles. 14 One of the Four Cardinal Virtues. 15 The difference between what you earn and what you spend.

DOWN 1 The edge between one thing and another. 3 You might make these between one account and another. 7 A method of planning where your money goes. 9 You’ll get more ______ from your money if you use it wisely. 10 You should periodically re-balance this. 12 A flat folding container typically used to hold currency.

Here are the rest of this week’s posts.
If you’re interested in a particular topic, choose one of the links below to jump to that topic, or just scroll down to view them all. Thanks to all those that participated.

Saving Reviews Finance Debt Economy Frugality Budgeting

Entrepreneurial Career Credit Money Management Real Estate Investing Other

SAVING
Exjackly presents Savings Philosophy #1. This is part one of a series about how you think about money and how it impacts your ability to save.

Moneywalks presents Car Gas Experiment: Regular or Premium? Is there a mileage advantage to using premium gas over regular? Find out the results of Andy’s experiment.

REVIEWS
The Money Mythos presents a review of Mint.com: Free online money management. This thorough review of Mint.com gives a nice overview of the features.

FinanceIsPersonal.com presents Don’t Trust Consumer Ratings when Buying Online. This post offers several reasons to avoid buying things based solely on consumer reviews.

The Simple Dollar presents Review: The Courage to Be Rich. Thinking about reading The Courage to Be Rich? This review gives a detailed overview of the book.

FINANCE
Growing Money presents My Financial Accounts. He provides a list of the accounts that he actually uses, ranging from credit cards to checking accounts as part of a series on Money Management 201.

Grad Money Matters presents Campaign Against Financial Myths: 82 Myths Busted! . This post wraps up a series on financial myths, summarizing 82 of them.

Fiscal Musings presents Financial Statements Revisited, which explains the importance of a balance sheet and income statement for individuals.

Online Savings Blog presents Mint Officially Launches, which gives a brief overview of the Mint and announces the launch.

DEBT
The Happy Rock presents If You Are Making Car Payments, You Don’t Own The Car. He hopes to change how the world talks about debt.

Mortgage Blog presents The Best Way to Reduce Mortgage Debt. This post presents a variety of ways to reduce mortgage debt.

ECONOMY
Million Dollar Journey presents Loonie at Parity with the USD?. With the increasing strength of the Canadian dollar and the continual weakening of the USD, it’s only a matter of time before they reach parity.

FRUGALITY
Lazy Man and Health presents Your Diet or Your Money. Lazy Man discusses some research from the University of Minnesota that says that if you are on a diet you might spend money impulsively.

One Frugal Girl presents Can You Resist a Bargain?. She wonders, is it a bargain to purchase something for which there is no foreseeable need?

BUDGETING
DebtBeater presents 5 Immediate Advantages of Making Your First Budget, which points out some of the immediate realizations he and his wife had after forcing themselves to actually make their first budget.

ChristianPF.com presents How to budget with ING direct. ING Direct is his secret budgeting tool.

ENTREPRENEURIAL
My Money Blog presents What Is Passive Income? Does It Really Exist?. He digs deeper into what passive income really is, and adds his own requirements.

CAREER
Four Pillars presents Living and Working in Different Countries. He interviews a person who lives in Canada and works in America. The
post covers such topics as taxes, crossing the border and retirement issues.

Cash Money Life presents MBA Options Part 5: How Much Will It Cost?. This is part 5 of a series that analyzes the true costs of an MBA.

Rather Be Shopping.com Blog presents 8 Ways To Financial Freedom and Wealth. This article comments on J. Paul Getty’s 8 rules for gaining wealth and financial freedom.

Calgirlfinance presents What I did with my 18% raise. (As you might guess, she uses it wisely! Find out how.)

The Financial Blogger presents 6 Things You Should Do Before Quitting Your Job. If you are about to quit your job, there are a few things that must be done before you actually pull out the plug.

CREDIT
FIRE Finance presents Credit Score - Myths & Facts!. FIRE Finance answers a common question: what really hurts our credit scores and how can we improve it.

Ask Mr Credit Card presents A Credit Card With No Balance Transfer Fee Is Harder To Find. He provides an update on the state of the balance transfer fee situation.

Savvy Saver presents Balance Transfers - Savvy Style. Savvy shares her process for securing and managing 0% balance transfers, as well as tips for getting higher credit limits and making balance transfers profitable.

Saving With Me presents 10 Ways To Correctly Manage A Credit Card. You’ll find steps that can be taken to ensure your credit stays intact and you do not have problem with credit cards.

MONEY MANAGEMENT
Moolanomy presents The True Earning Power and the Real Cost of Luxuries. This post demonstrate how to calculate what we really earn per hour taking taxes, living expenses, and the additional time we consume to prepare for work and commute into consideration.

4 Eva Young presents How To Set Up A Contingency Fund — along with reasons why it’s a good idea to have one, and how to get started.

Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents Women, Men and Money. Many factors hamper financial equality between the sexes. Could the way that women think about money be one of the factors?

Advanced Personal Finance presents The Personal Finance Lifecycle. Personal finance concerns vary by age. Things that are important when you’re 22 become trivial at 55.

I’ve Paid For This Twice Already presents My List Fetish pays My Bills On Time. She’s obsessed with lists, but it sounds like that’s a good thing.

Make Your Nut presents The Bill Clinton Method of Personal Finance. Bill Clinton had the ability to compartmentalize, or separate different aspects of his life. The same concept works quite well for money management.

Single Ma’s Fabulous Financials presents Stop Paying Your Bills Late. Single Ma has a great system to make sure her bills get paid on time.

The Finance Buff presents Best Checking Account Which Is Not A Checking Account. Get all the good features of bank accounts and none of the limitations.

ProBargainHunter presents Save the environment, at bargain prices. Is a plugin hybrid car an efficient way to save the environment?

Gather Little By Little presents Money Saving Monday Tip #10 - Patience is a virtue. Being patient and just waiting a little while can save you significant amounts of money on purchases.

The Dough Roller presents Behold, the Power of the Pawn. How a lowly pawn can teach us about personal finance.

My Wealth Builder presents Some Money Rules of Thumb I Use. Rules are thumb are often easy to remember and easy to use, especially when doing a quick assessment.

Saving Advice presents There is No Such Thing as Divorce Insurance. Don’t rely on your partner to take care of all your finances.

REAL ESTATE
Everything Finance presents Features that “DECREASE” the Resale Value of Your Home. A pool isn’t always an advantage. Check out this listing of features that could decrease the resale value of your home.

Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog presents What to Do If Your Offer Isn’t Accepted. Most of the outcome of a real estate investment is determined during negotiations on price and terms, so, while it hurts sometimes, it’s not always bad to have an offer that isn’t accepted. Here’s what to do afterwards.

Searchlight Crusade presents Will Agents List My Property if I Owe More Than It’s Worth?. As with everything else pertaining to real estate, there are potential upsides and downsides.

TwoWiseAcres presents Confronting Your Fear of Real Estate Investing. Rob addresses some of the common fears about real estate investing.

Home Finance Freedom presents Hidden Burden of Overbuying: Housing Myths Part 6. Would You Pay $250,000 for a Room?

INVESTING
The Baglady presents Not All 401ks Are Created Equal. Having two different 401ks has taught her that not all 401ks are created equal, and just blindly dumping a lot of money into a 401k is not wise.

Neural Market Trends presents A Review Of My Forex Trading. Tom provides a review of his Forex trading.

Dax Desai presents A Gift from the Fed (I was Wrong). How could you have made money with the recent Fed cuts? Gold, CDs, and foreign exchange are explained here as shown by this person’s real-life investment examples.

Financial Reference presents Raw P/E Ratios. Basing the cheapness of a stock on the raw P/E ratio is overly simplistic.

Moment on Money presents Understanding Indexed Annuities. This post looks at what an equity indexed annuity is, and when it would be appropriate (if at all).

Nordic Money presents How to profit from the credit crunch. Make sure your portfolio is well positioned to take advantage of market movements

Stock Trading To Go presents Should Market Research Begin with Technical or Fundamental Analysis?. A look at both technical and fundamental analysis and a breakdown of which is better to utilize first when conducting market research.

Debt Free presents How to Analyze Potential Investments. The only question you need to ask yourself when considering a potential investment is “Will it make me any money, and if so, how much, and how risky will it be to generate that return?”

The Amatureist Financial Journey presents Options Extravaganza. This post explains the types of financial options and some of the related terminology.

Everyday Finance presents Emerging Market Telecoms up 50%+ YTD. Buying into telecoms can be a good thing.

Smart Money Daily presents What Does it Mean to be ‘Wealthy’?. The Forbes 400 list was just released, and for the first time ever, having a billion dollars was not enough to make the list. When you look at the wealth of the country’s richest individuals, it makes grabbing a million or two for yourself seem rather easy.

Money and Such presents How to Play the Fed Rate Cut. This article talks about how the fed rate cut may impact different asset classes, and how investors should try to take advantage of these trends.

OTHER
The Dividend Guy Blog presents Buying Stock in a Company Just Because You Love The Products?. Is this a good idea, or are other methods better?

Queercents presents WWYD: Buy or Read in the Store?. Would you read a whole book or magazine in a bookstore and not purchase it? What circumstances make it ok? When is it not ok?

Five Cent Nickel presents Dealing With Found Money, Followup. He & his wife found ran across a wallet containing eleven $100 bills and nothing else — no identification, no credit cards, nothing. Here’s how they handled it.

Money Smart Life presents Should Healthy People Pay Less for Health Insurance?. He wonders if people should be offered a discount on their deductible for abstaining from those behaviors, and talks about a pilot program that proposes exactly that.

No Credit Needed presents Day 21 of 33 Days And 33 Ways To Save Money And Reduce Debt: Focus. What’s the ’secret’ to succeeding at personal finance goals? Focus.

One Million and Beyond presents Social Pressures to Spend your Money. The pressure to keep up with the proverbial Jones’ is so strong in our society that it hamstrings us financially from a young age.

Thanks again to those who participated. (Note that the crossword puzzle was made with the help of puzzle-maker.com.)

Go to: Home page Add to: del.icio.us Netscape reddit StumbleUpon
Filed under: Carnivals. Monday, September 24, 2007

You may also be interested in:


The carnivals are up
It’s carnival time
Carnival time!

8 Personal Finance Lessons Learned From Monopoly

As checkered a history as the board game Monopoly has had (Monopoly: The World’s Most Famous Game–and How It Got That Way is a great book about its history), it’s amazing how much can be gleaned from it and how applicable those lessons are in so many facets of our lives. I think there are at least a half dozen million “business lessons learned from Monopoly” books but I haven’t seen any personal finance lessons, until now.

Lesson #1: Passive Income Is The Key to Wealth

This the world of Monopoly, passive income comes in the form of rent when opposing plays land on your properties. In reality, passive income can come from any source but the path to wealth comes from building up your assets so they can generate passive income. Why do you save for retirement? So you can live off your investments passively and you can stop relying on that $200 every time around the board as a means of survival. In Monopoly, you win by acquiring more land, building up hotels, and bankrupting your opponents. You can’t win by just running around the board.

Lesson #2: Luck Is Part of Life, Take Advantage of It

So you hit a few doubles and fly around the board, take advantage of it by snatching up as many properties as you can. In life, you’ll often catch lucky breaks, be sure you’re in a position to capitalize on those lucky breaks. Sometimes you’ll have an opportunity that requires a particular skill, try expanding your horizons beforehand and polishing up on those skills that are related to your current job but not necessarily applicable at the moment. You don’t need to become an expert but when the opportunity presents itself you can at least claim brief experience so that it can get you in the discussion.

Lesson #3: An Emergency Fund Is Essential

When you have only $54, a monopoly with three hotels, and a few random deeds like B&O Railroad. You hit community chest… and you get the housing renovation card. Now you have to find a way to scratch up a hundred dollars or so per hotel and you’re plum out of luck. You flip over B&O and shutter a hotel just to make the payment. Emergency funds are as important in Monopoly as they are in real life. The only difference is that in real life there are a lot more emergencies than in Monopoly.

Lesson #4: Improve What You Have

Don’t overlook the things in your life that you already have and think of ways to make them better. In Monopoly, it’s putting houses and hotels on the properties you already own, not trying to find more property. In real life, it’s about working hard at the job you already have, getting promoted, getting good raises, and setting yourself up for a financially prosperous retirement. It’s very tempting to look at what others have, especially material possessions, and think that your life would be better if you add those things… don’t.

Lesson #5: Use Jail to Reflect, Refresh, and Come Back Stronger

I’m not saying you should go to jail to get a breather, as one sometimes tries to do in the end of Monopoly, but sometimes you have to give yourself a time-out to rest and relax. Whether it’s pressures from your work or pressures from your friends or pressures from your family, it always pays huge dividends to take a step back so that you can collect your thoughts. It could be for a minute, an hour, or a week, but taking a little “me” time will always give you more energy to tackle life’s challenges with a renewed spirit.

Lesson #6: Life Isn’t Fair, It’s What You Make Of It

Everyone starts off with $1,500 and their butts on GO, so everyone starts off as equals right? Wrong. The player with the first move has an advantage over everyone else. The player with the second move has an advantage over everyone after him or her. The player that hits doubles has an advantage of the player that doesn’t. Life isn’t fair but that’s okay, the decisions you make after the dice have been thrown are more important than how many spaces you move. Look at all the professional athletes with million dollar contracts flushed down the toilet because of bad decisions? You could say they got lucky but they messed things up for themselves.

Lesson #7: Life Is About Relationships

In Monopoly, part of the game is negotiating with the other players to strike up a deal. It’s really a proxy for building relationships with people so that you can leverage those relationships for your own benefit. Small business owners build up networks of other professionals, such as attorneys, tax accountants, and bankers; because they know they will need to draw on them in the future. Regular folks like us build up our networks because it may be the contact that gets us our next job. Life is about relationships and building up a network of trusted individuals you can turn to in a jam.

Lesson #8: There Is Only One Winner

In Monopoly, there is only one winner. Okay, this last one is more a little peek at the next post about Monopoly I’ll write - Lessons I Had To Unlearn From Monopoly.

Personal Finance: Save for retirement first, then work on a down payment

I am 23 years old, and my husband and I are trying to save for a house. I know that if I start saving for retirement right now, I will be much better off than if I wait even a few years. I contribute the maximum my company will match to my Roth 401(k), but we are unsure about how to split saving between a house and retirement. Should I be contribut ing more toward retirement? You are so right that starting early is key. Many people in their 20s blow off saving for retirement, but the very best time to get started is when you have decades ahead of you for your money to grow.

Here's a simple illustration. If you start saving $4,000 a year for retirement at age 23, you'll have a little over $1 million in 40 years, assuming 8 percent average annual returns.

Wait just five years to start, and your future nest egg shrinks 33 percent, to about $690,000.

A good rule of thumb is to save at least 10 percent of your gross income for retirement. You'll probably want to save more if you plan on early retirement or extended breaks from work (if you want to stay at home for a few years with your kids, for example). People who start sav ing for retirement late -- say, after age 35 -- probably should bump up their contribution rate as well.

Once your retirement savings are on track, you can start sock ing money away for other goals, like your future house. If your ex penses are too high to allow you to save more, then you need to trim those costs. Books such as "Your Money or Your Life," by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, and Amy Dacyczyn's "Tightwad Gazette" can put you on the right track. I just finished reading your column about how people who can't afford to tip should eat at home. I think you have a lot of nerve. I know people who are on a fixed income who would just like to get out of the house for a sandwich and maybe some company. So what if they don't have enough for a tip? If a manager ever approached me about my not tipping, I would take my business elsewhere and I would be sure to pass this information along to my friends, neighbors and relatives. Actually, taking your business elsewhere is exactly what the wait staff is hoping you will do.

Being thrifty, especially when money is tight, is a virtue. But ex pecting others to bear the cost of your frugality crosses the line into stinginess. And that's exactly what you're doing when you fail to tip at a full-service restaurant. As mentioned in the earlier column, these employees depend on tips for a livable wage, since many are paid way below minimum wage.

People who feel they can't afford to tip have other options be sides eating at home, including patronizing fast-food and self- serve restaurants. I am a generous tipper, diligently giving upward of 25 percent even when the order has a built-in service charge. Yet increasingly I encounter whiny servers who are slothful at best and less than enthusiastic about the service they are providing. What is the proper response to lackluster service? I frequently entertain clients and would ap preciate good meals accompa nied by good service. Some problems are beyond the control of the server, such as an understaffed restaurant or troubles in the kitchen that slow meal preparation. But if the problem really is the server, the proper course is to have a word with the manager about the issue after the meal. The response you get will tell you volumes about whether the bad service is an aberration or par for the course for that establishment.

Given that you entertain fre quently for business, you might seek out restaurants that are known for their good service and reward the staff accordingly. This tipping business has got ten way out of hand. Never in my career of 30 years was I ever tipped. I hate tipping and don't, but I'm trumped by the wife, who does tip. I have business cards which I leave: "When you tip me for coming here, I'll tip you for being here." Here's a tip, then: If you actually do have such cards and leave them behind you, you should be careful about never eating in the same place twice.

Questions may be submitted to Liz Pulliam Weston via her Web site, www.asklizweston.com. She regrets she cannot respond personally to queries.

Personal Finance Notebook: Expect a fee for biweekly mortgage

Today, The Sacramento Bee brings you a new resource to answer your questions about personal finance. Every Tuesday, Assistant Business Editor Claudia Buck will tap a roster of local and national experts for advice to help you navigate the often confusing world of money matters. Send your questions to Claudia Buck at: cbuck@sacbee.com or by mail: P.O. Box 15779 Sacramento, CA 95852

Q: I read Tom Sullivan's column in The Bee, "It pays to shorten your mortgage," and thought the idea about making mortgage payments every two weeks sounded terrific.
I contacted my mortgage company, CitiMortgage, and was transferred to a subsidiary company that handles CitiMortgage's payment plans.

I was told that they could comply with my request; however, they would charge me a "discounted" one-time fee of $275 to pay my mortgage every two weeks. Is this "normal" in the mortgage industry?

Sandy B., Roseville

A: Yes, it is normal. We received letters from several readers who contacted their lenders after reading Sullivan's column about paying their mortgage every two weeks.

The idea: Make half your mortgage payment every two weeks instead of once a month, resulting in one extra full payment over 12 months. By accelerating the frequency of mortgage payments, you can pay off a fixed-rate, 30-year mortgage far sooner and save thousands of dollars in interest.

As unfair as it sounds, you'll probably pay extra for that privilege. Peter Ogilvie, president of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers, said many lenders rely on a separate company to collect and handle mortgage payments. Those subsidiaries are accustomed to dealing with traditional monthly payments. If you want to switch to a different payment schedule, you'll likely be charged $275 to $350. "That's where they make their money," Ogilvie said.

In the case of CitiMortgage, a biweekly mortgage payment plan is offered by its finance subsidiary, FNC Insurance Agency. It's designed as a check-free, budget-friendly way to pay your mortgage, according to CitiMortgage spokesman Mark Rodgers. The fee to launch the service: $375, plus $1.50 per withdrawal. (Which means your local CitiMortgage office was offering a discounted rate.)

To avoid that charge but still grab some mortgage savings, Ogilvie and others recommend a couple of alternatives:

• Ask for a new payoff date. Call your bank or mortgage lender and ask to set up a new amortization schedule with a payoff date that fits your financial goals. For example, say you want your mortgage paid off by the time you retire in 16 years. You and your lender can calculate how much extra you'll need to pay each month to arrive at retirement -- mortgage-free.

• Pay an additional fixed amount each month. Take your monthly payment and add one-twelfth of that amount to each payment.

For instance, if your monthly payment on a 30-year, fixed-rate loan is $1,896.20, you'd pay an extra $158.02 per month. At the end of the year, you'll have made 13 monthly payments instead of 12. At that rate, your loan would be paid off in 289 months, instead of 360. You'll end up lopping off about six years on your mortgage and save a lot of money in interest.
What's more startling is how those savings add up: $682,632 in interest and principal when paid over 30 years, vs. $595,375 for the shorter term, for an overall savings of about $87,200.
But please note: These suggestions work only with a fixed-rate mortgage, not for borrowers holding an adjustable-rate mortgage.

About the writer:
The Bee's Claudia Buck can be reached at (916) 321-1968 or cbuck@sacbee.com. Questions can also be mailed to: P.O. Box 15779 Sacramento, CA 95852.

Carnival of Personal Finance #118

Written by Flexo on September 17, 2007 | Carnivals

The latest edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance has been posted at Money, Matter, and More Musings. Golbguru, this week’s host, has interspersed the 88 selected articles with facts about U.S. currency. It’s an fun-fact-filled edition with great articles as always. Golbguru’s Editor’s Choice articles are good starting points for reading through this week’s Carnival.

• Why I Want to Retire Early, Change Roles, and Live on One Income
• Richard Dawkins and Doing What You Love
• 8 Ways to Get a Raise and Never Get Fired
• A Look at Salary Data from an MBA Perspective

Read the rest of the articles at Money, Matter and More Musings.

30 Free eBooks To Learn Everything You Want to Know About Personal Finance

by Cap on 6/29/2007

When you reach into a broad-ranging topic like personal finance, you find everyone and their cousin trying to reach across the Internet to give you advice. There’s so much information there that it can literally be overwhelming; there’s literally too much for the average person to sort through.

Luckily for you, at Mint we’re looking to quash that “intimidation” factor. There’s no reason that personal finance can’t be thoughtful, cohesive, and comprehensive, so we’ve probed through the web to find 30 free e-Books/booklets across the topics you’ll reference most.

We’ve sorted these e-Books into specific categories, along with a brief description we’ve written up on each of them. Everything is in PDF format, so if an e-Book strikes your fancy, consider downloading a copy by right-clicking on the link, then clicking “Save As.”

Just in case you don’t have time, the top e-Book in each category is our Minty Pick. Happy reading!

Basics of Personal Finance

1. Building Wealth: A Beginner’s Guide to Securing Your Financial Future (1.2 MB 39 pg) - An excellent e-Book from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (putting all the other Feds to shame), this guide helps individuals and families develop a plan for building personal wealth. It presents an overview of personal wealth-building strategies that includes setting financial goals, seeking guidance, budgeting, saving and investing, and managing debt.
2. Pathways to Getting Ahead (882 KB, 48 pg) - A very good booklet, this guide is targeted to young adults, and aims to spur thinking about the importance of asset building in their personal lives and about how larger policy decisions impact the choices they make.
3. Money Matters: Your Guide for Financial Security (24 MB, 32 pg) - Get helpful tips on how to set financial goals, organize your financial files, find a financial professional, understand your investment options and responsibilities, and be a wise borrower.
4. Banking Basics (721 KB, 44 pg) - From the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, this e-Book provides an introduction to banking for young people that answers many basic questions: What is a bank? What makes one type of account different from another? Why do banks fail and what happens when they do?
5. Simple Strategies for Managing Your Money (7.5 MB, 12 pg) - From the FDIC. Use the helpful checklists to get financially fit, avoid bad deals and scams, insure all your deposits, and effectively resolve problems with financial institutions.
6. Taking Control of Your Finances (1.3 MB, 12 pg) - Another handy guide from the FDIC that’s geared toward young adults — from those still in school to just starting a career or a family. Learn the right ways to save and manage money, and how to avoid some common mistakes people make with their cash flow.
   

Consumer Awareness

7. Consumer Action Handbook (11 MB, 178 pg) - This is one of the most popular books published by the federal government (seriously). The 178 page e-Book is an easy-to-read guide offering general buying tips and ways to resolve marketplace problems (including sample complaint letters), as well as information on specific topics such as credit, cars, insurance, and travel. There are thousands of names, addresses, telephone numbers and websites for corporations, trade groups, state and local consumer protection offices and federal agencies.
8. Consumer’s Almanac (562 KB, 32 pg) - Organize your expenses, save for the future, and manage your credit with monthly calendars and worksheets.
9. Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing a Financial Planner (347 KB, 14 pg) - A straight-forward brochure from the Certified Financial Planners on 10 questions you should ask when you look for a financial planner — an important decision that should be accompanied by important questions.
   

Credit & Credit Cards

10. Building a Better Credit Report (235 KB, 24 pg) - Learn how to legally improve your credit report, how to deal with debt, how to spot credit-related scams, and more.
11. SHOP: The Credit Card You Pick Can Save You Money (213 KB, 13 pg) - This consumer awareness brochure provides tips on picking the right credit card that meets your spending and repayment habits. It focuses on key costs and terms to consider such as the annual percentage rate (APR), the cash advances, the annual fee, and the grace period, to name a few.
12. Healthy Credit (1.2 MB, 12 pg) - Learn more about how your credit report and credit score affect your ability to borrow money and stay healthy financially.
    

Saving & Investing

13. 66 Ways to Save Money (78 KB) - One of the classic publications with over two million copies distributed. It details practical ways to cut everyday costs on transportation, insurance, banking, credit, housing, utilities, food, and more.
14. Get the Facts on Saving and Investing (5.7 MB, 32 pg) - From the SEC. A road map to start you on a journey to financial security through saving and investing. Use this guide helpful tips and worksheets for calculating net worth, income, and expenses.
15. How SIPC Protects You (3.3 MB, 10 pg) - If your brokerage firm closes due to bankruptcy or other financial difficulties, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) works to return your assets. Find out what SIPC does and does not cover.
16. All About… The Foreign Exchange Market in the United States (assorted PDF) - Discusses in detail the operations, participants and instruments in the U.S. segment of the global foreign exchange market.
17. Tools of the Trade: A Basic Guide to Financial Derivatives (2.1 MB, 15 pg) - This guide offers insight into when and how derivatives can be valuable tools for managing financial risk and focuses on pertinent questions to ask yourself and others before you or your company invests.
    

Mortgages

18. Know Before You Go… To Get a Mortgage (684 KB, 16 pg) - The purpose of this guide is to provide general mortgage information to consumers and to shed some light on the risks associated with today’s more complex mortgage offerings. It is by no means meant to counsel consumers to avoid certain products, but rather to alert them to potential risks, and encourage them to make informed decisions and to be aware that certain products may be appropriate for some borrowers but not for others.
19. Interest-Only Mortgage Payments and Payment-Option ARM’s: Are they for you? - Information to help you decide if an interest-only mortgage payment is right for you (Note: In Mint’s opinion, they’re likely not).
    

Retirement Planning

20. Savings Fitness: A Guide to Your Money and Your Financial Future (3.2 MB, 16 pg) - Create your personal savings plan and prepare for retirement with this step-by-step guide.
21. 401(k) Plans (41 KB, 7 pg) - Explains what these plans are, what happens when you change employers, and what to do if you need the money before retirement.
22. Variable Annuities: What You Should Know (11.3 MB, 24 pg) - Explains what they are, how they work, what you have to pay, and questions to ask before you invest.
    

Estate Planning & Insurance

23. Estate Planning (48 kb, 9 pg) - Covers why a will is important and how to prepare one; how to estimate the size of your estate and minimize taxes; and how to set up powers of attorney and advance medical directives.
24. Living Trust Offers (132 KB, 4 pg) - From the Federal Trade Commission, a small pamphlet to find out if living trusts are right for you and how to protect yourself from scams when planning your estate.
25. What You Should Know About Buying Life Insurance (312 KB, 28 pg) - A quick 28 page pamphlet that describes various types of life insurance, with tips on choosing a company, an agent, and a policy that meets your needs.
    

Privacy & Security

26. ID Theft: What It’s All About (711 KB, 36 pg) - A small information pamphlet from the FTC that details how thieves can steal your personal information and use it to commit fraud for long periods without your knowledge. Here’s how to protect yourself, and what to do if you are a victim.
27. Identity Theft (452 KB, 22 pg) - This booklet is designed to help you understand what identity theft is, how it happens, how to protect yourself, and what steps to take if your identity is stolen. There is a companion video along with the booklet, available here.
28. Privacy Choices for Your Personal Financial Information (77 KB, 6 pg) - A small booklet that explains your right to opt out of sharing some of your personal information and lists the types of information that financial companies can share about you.
29. Identity Theft and Your Social Security Number (218 KB, 8 pg) - Someone illegally using your Social Security number can steal your financial identity and your money. Find out how to prevent identify theft, how to report it if you suspect it, and if you can get a new Social Security number if you are a victim.
30. Phishing and Pharming: Helping Consumers Avoid Internet Fraud (387 KB, 8 pg) - The increase in online transactions has been accompanied by an increase in online identity theft. Fraudulent access to personal information over the Internet is increasingly prevalent and sophisticated. Two forms of identity theft are at the forefront of this Internet piracy: phishing and pharming.
    

Bonus e-Book from Awesome Readers:

31. What Women Need to Know About Retirement (300 KB, 78 pg) - A project from the Heinz Family Philanthropies and The Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, this 78 page e-Book covers the why, where, and what of retirement (and it’s not just for women!). Topics include: stocks, bonds, social security, and health care. A very decent can’t miss e-Book!

The Four Golden Rules Of Personal Finance

by: Francis Kier

Many successful people have mentors to guide them in learning the skills that lead to achievement, and I�ll do my best to offer you some critical personal finance perspectives. They say that life is a school where you learn the lesson after the test. The same thing applies to money, but you can�t go back in time to fix catastrophic financial mistakes that you have made over time. As long as you are alive, you are a player on the field of the money-game, and you need to know the basic rules before you get tagged by the experienced players.

Rule #1: To earn money from money. The only way to escape becoming a wage slave for the rest of your life is to set aside savings. The profit on your savings can be used to increase your lifestyle spending, reduce the number of years until you retire, or allow you to actually have any retirement at all. How are you doing so far toward saving and getting it to earn money for you?

Every dollar that you spend eliminates its ability to earn money for you in the future. I am not recommending that you stop eating at restaurants and going to movies, I am recommending that you use some common sense, like looking at your four biggest expenses over the last few months and aggressively finding a way to reduce them.

The biggest obstacle for the first rule is personal debt of any kind (other than a mortgage for your home) or a lease of any kind. Every personal debt that you incur reduces your net worth which could have been working for you over your life time. Acquiring personal debt is exactly like putting a large hole in your wallet. In the money-game, a huge transfer of wealth occurs between the �Haves� and the �Have-Nots� over the words, �I can afford that monthly payment.� Here is a hint: the �Have-Nots� are the ones who make that statement. So please don�t ever look at whether you can afford a monthly payment to make a purchase; pay in cash after you�ve saved for the item. [Everything that you buy with a 0%-interest payment plan must be over-priced. Behind the scenes, your payment contract is sold to a lender with an interest rate, and retailers don�t do this without building-in an acceptable profit for themselves. Ask retailers how much the item will cost if you pay in full, and you could get a lower price.]

Rule #2 Always keep your finances under control. The first step in losing financial control and spiraling into debt and money problems is simply not dealing with personal finances. Prepare for catastrophic financial accidents with health, life, disability, and auto insurance. Plan and save before you buy something. Create a balance sheet for yourself at least once a year to see how you are progressing. Pay every bill on time, or contact the creditor to tell them what is going on and make a partial payment. If you are temporarily unable to handle any of this, ask for some help immediately and find someone trustworthy who will do this for you.

The most common source of financial trouble is a trauma in your life. This can be a health problem (large expenses or unable to work), an emotional problem (divorce or loss of loved one), or a financial problem (losing a job, cut in pay, relocation, unexpected expenses). Whichever the source may be, it leads to three emotional problems: the first is denial, the second is being overwhelmed, and the third is hopelessness. Denial causes people to not open their mail and continue spending as usual, and being overwhelmed paralyzes people from getting assistance and dealing with the situation. For example, if you just lost a loved one, balancing your checkbook and paying bills is not high in your priorities. Unfortunately, tiny amounts of debt grow with interest and penalties into seemingly insurmountable mountains of debt; leaving you with loathsome options such as bankruptcy, poor credit, declining lifestyle spending, and added stress that you bring to relationships and work.

Rule #3 Pay attention to the finances of the people with whom you spend the most time. Whether they are relatives, friends, or co-workers, these people have the most impact on your financial life. Do they consistently follow the first two rules of the money game? Do they earn about the same money as you? If the answer to either of those is �no�, then I recommend that you start spending a little less time with them; and this is why. If they don�t consistently follow the first two rules, it is unlikely that you will either. You unconsciously model the people around you, and the more people you are exposed to that don�t follow the first two rules, the more likely that you will unwittingly follow them. No one thinks they are �trying to keep up with the Joneses�, but we all do it to some extent, and this is the mechanism. On the other hand, if they earn a lot more money than you, you may rack up a lot of debt trying to keep up with them (meeting them at their favorite expensive restaurant, joining them for another expensive vacation, buying a new car because yours is the junker among all of your friends, etc.) On the other hand, if most of your friends earn a lot less than you, you will turn into the group�s banker. For example, you�ll find yourself in the pattern of putting your credit card down to pay for dinner and they�ll all say they�ll pay you back later, but 50% of them never do; and they don�t mind taking advantage of you because, after all, you earn a lot more than they do. Or, you and your friends need to pay a deposit for renting a house and they expect you to write the checks because you have the money available and they do not.

The neighborhood that you live in also creates financial pressure to violate the first two financial goals. Your neighbors are likely to become friends (and I�ve already gone over this), but they also influence the size of your home, extent of your landscaping, price of furniture, and the size of your TV. So pay very close attention to the finances of your neighbors “ if you don�t like how they are measuring up for first two rules, move somewhere more in alignment with your financial goals. If your family and friends, don�t measure up financially, find some additional people to spend time with that have financial habits that you�d like to emulate and learn from. I have friends with a wide range of income, but it is much more difficult to follow the first two money rules when I am with the extremes from my own income. You�ll just find it easier to reach the next rule when the peer group that you hang out with aligns closer to your economic level.

Rule #4 Accelerate the other three rules:

Add to your savings by increasing your income through advancing your career. It doesn�t matter whether you enjoy it; it is a means to an end “ with the end being progress toward the fulfillment of rule #1. Increase the amount that you save by aggressively lowering four of your highest expenses. Start spending time with people that talk about investing money and are systematically building their wealth the fastest. The combination of all four of these rules will hopefully offer a next-step for you to take today to start getting more �wins� in the money-game.

How To Budget With An Irregular Income

9:20 AM ON THU SEP 13 2007
BY BEN POPKEN

Most money-management systems presuppose a steady paycheck, but No Credit Needed shows how you can track your dollars even if you aren't sure of when they'll arrive.


* Write a prioritized list of expenditures
* Set a budget for each item
* When you get money, put it in your checking account
* Pay down the list from bottom to top
* Leave some in checking for unexpected expenses, and withdraw some for day to day petty cash
* Transfer leftover money to savings
* In tighter months, focus on necessities and must-pay bills and withdraw from savings as needed

"Eventually, you will be able to build up enough money in your savings and you will not have to worry about when you receive income," writes No Credit Needed. "Instead of making deposits into your checking account and using that money for current expenses, you will make a deposit into your savings account and wait for the bills to arrive. You will be a month (or more) ahead, prepared for the bills that are coming."

With discipline, this is an excellent system and easily implemented. No artist need ever again survive on paint chips alone.

Rich Indians look at trusts to manage money for long haul

As prosperity spreads, the global trend of setting up trusts is picking up faster in the country

Sanjiv Shankaran

New Delhi

The head of a financial services firm, who did not wish to be identified, found himself in a bind.

Investments made in other companies by his firm led to him becoming a

Well-heeled guidance: The funds try to fulfill the legacy requirements of individuals and families such as philanthropy, etc.

director on their boards. With every additional directorship, he began to fear that a legal dispute involving the company could potentially lead to his personal assets being attached.

He decided to insulate his personal wealth from job risks by transferring a significant part into a trust, where the beneficiaries would be clearly identified.

“The idea was to isolate legal ownership from actual ownership,” he said.

The trust is run according to clearly defined guidelines, which cover the way assets can be invested as well as the beneficiaries that include some charitable causes he supports.

He is not alone.

A growing number of wealthy Indians are looking at trusts as a way to manage money for the long term. The objective of such efforts is to fulfil the legacy requirements of individuals and families in areas such as philanthropy and also insulate family wealth from the fallout of professional hazards and breakdown in marriages.

Financial services firm DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd is among the first to set up a professional trust practice to manage the wealth of clients.

“We have already opened trusts for clients,”said Pradeep Dokania, managing director, head, global private client, at DSP Merrill Lynch. “We are being guided by Merrill Lynch.”

As prosperity spreads, the global trend of setting up trusts is picking up faster than people may think, said executives in India’s nascent but growing wealth management industry. The array of options is quite wide already, with firms such as DSP also offering regular money management options, which ensure higher returns on assets, to high networth individuals (HNIs). DSP Merrill Lynch, like others, keeps the identity of clients, and the amounts being managed, a secret.

The basic template for DSP Merrill Lynch’s trust practice is that of Merrill Lynch’s business in the US, said Dokania. DSP Merrill has a wholly-owned subsidiary that floats professional trusts to manage wealth and attendant legacies. “(The) trust concept will catch on; it is still early days,” he added.

Wealth management executives are unsure of the number of companies offering similar services because of the tremendous secrecy surrounding the industry. However, large global financial services firms are betting that the concept will catch on in India. Citigroup Inc. offers philanthropy advisory and wealth structuring services in Singapore and Hong Kong in the Asia Pacific region.

The company plans to extend its services to Indian clients in the near future, said Melanie Schnoll-Begun, the US-based managing director and head of Citigroup’s Citi Philanthropic Services.

When Citi’s philanthropy advisory services does come to India, the US template is likely to be used. “All types of people could fit into a philanthropic trust,” Schnoll-Begun said in a telephone interview. “Ultimately, people are people. There’s a universal portfolio of philanthropic trusts that, with some customization, can meet most clients’ needs.”

The interest of firms such as Citi is a function of the increase in the number of wealthy individuals in the country who are riding on the back of fast-paced economic growth and booming asset markets.

India, along with Singapore, Indonesia and Russia, had the highest growth in HNI population in 2006, according to the 2007 World Wealth Report, prepared by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini SA.

India had an HNI population of 100,000 in 2006, and the annual growth rate of HNI population in the country that year was 20.5%. The global growth rate in HNI population was 8.3% in 2006, which adds up to 9.5 million individuals, the report said.

In India, trusts are emerging as a vehicle to meet needs, such as legacy management, other than just tax planning, the earlier big challenge before HNIs.

One group of customers, said executives in the industry, with whom professional trusts will find favour is the new generation of entrepreneurs who belong to business families. The attitude of young owners of inherited businesses is markedly different from that of the preceding generation, on account of international exposure, several wealth management industry executives said.

The global trends in the attitude of the wealthy are already apparent in India too, with a significant number below 40 years in age. The Invest India Income and Savings Survey 2007, produced by Noida-based market research firm IIMS Dataworks, showed that a little over a quarter of the 8.87 lakh people, who earn in excess of Rs1 million a year, are in the age group 36-40.

Other studies suggest these trends will strengthen in future. A May 2007 study by the McKinsey Global Institute titled The Bird of Gold: The Rise of India’s Consumer Market, said that an assumption of an average growth rate of 7.3% between 2005 and 2025 would create a large number wealthy people in India. India’s actual economic growth in 2005-06 and 2006-07 was 9% and 9.4%.

The McKinsey study predicted that more than 23 million Indians—more than Australia’s current population—will be among the country’s wealthiest citizens by 2025. The study did not define “wealthy.”

V. Mahadevan, director and chief executive officer at Chennai-headquartered wealth management firm Wealth Advisors India Pvt. Ltd, said he has seen a change in the way the young generation of entrepreneurs in smaller industrial hubs relate to wealth management.

Wealth Advisors, too, is getting ready to extend its traditional services to managing legacies.

“It is going to take some time for acceptance,” said Mahadevan. “We are exploring this opportunity today and the time is not far when we (will) have to do it.”

Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs - How Do Women Rank?

By: Nina Smith Posted: 12:11pm, Wed 12 Sep 2007 Topics: Business, Career & Personal Finance

“Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.”– Peter F. Drucker

Last week, FIRE Finance put together a list of the “Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs” based on monthly traffic as reported by Quantcast, SiteMeter, and Compete along with Page Ranks. Only two made the Top 25 blogs that are written exclusively by women.

[Drum roll, please] The first is Frugal for Life written by Dawn C. in Colorado. Dawn learned to live within her means after declaring bankruptcy. She’s an inspiration to those who want to lead a more frugal life. She writes:

I not only want to remember, but need to remember the fear and frustration that debt caused me so I don’t do it again!

Dawn has great tips about how to save money and stay on track by minimizing expenses. I’m a big fan of her “Many Uses For” series like this one that teach readers how to get maximum life out of empty cereal liners. She explains:

This time instead of buying waxed paper, there is an alternative out there and it sits in your kitchen cupboard just waiting to be used and abused.

Besides you can’t recycle most cereal liners. Dawn gets maximum use out of many items and shares her ideas with the rest of blogosphere. So go check her out.

[Sound trumpets] The other woman to make the cut is Kay Bell at Don’t Mess with Taxes. Kay is a Native Texan, professional journalist and self-proclaimed tax geek. She aims to:

Keep Uncle Sam cranky by providing tax and personal finance info that will mean more money in your bank account, not the government treasury.

Now there’s an incentive to read a blog about taxes. And to spice it up she always remembers to toss in some celebrity tax gossip between hosting her monthly Tax Carnival. Who knew the IRS could be such a circus? Be sure and join the fun!

A few other women were included in the next tier and many are blogs that I have personally read these last few years:

- Sharon Harvey Rosenberg of The Frugal Duchess
- The Mom at Single Ma’s Fabulous Financials
- Madame X at My Open Wallet
- Jane Dough at Boston Gal’s Open Wallet
- Amanda at Young and Broke
- The Recent Grad at Well-Heeled
- Kira at Penny Foolish
- Nicole at Budgeting Babe

All in all though – less than 20 percent of the Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs were written by women. It’s a telling stat and one that should encourage others to get into the game. Why should men get all the glory?

With that said, I’ve noted a couple of women posting on BlogHer recently about personal finance in the “All Post” tab: Mrs. Micah, or a young wife's odyssey is newly married and looking for financial accountability as a post-college adult. The other is Nicole McInerney from Dollars and Sense Education, a personal finance education company. She recently posted a Primer on Retirement Saving in a 5-part series. Both bloggers write in a unique voice and are worth noting. We need more women thinking and writing about money!

-------------
Nina’s other writings are found at Queercents where she just posted this week’s money / ethics installment of WWYD? (Jesus is free to comment too.)

More groups should help teach personal finance skills to college students

I’ve been with Young Money for almost six years and it still amazes me that there are almost no national organizations devoted to teaching personal finance education for college students. There are lots of great financial literacy groups out there with programs targeting the K-12 audience such as the Jump$tart Coalition, National Council on Economic Education, Junior Achievement and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. However, there are virtually no national college-oriented financial education programs other than Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and the National Financial Educators (NFE).

Young Money helps sponsor both those groups and I think they do an excellent job. But many students still have never heard of SIFE even though they are a worldwide organization. NFE is another great group but they only reach a limited number of college campuses. It still seems like colleges expect for students to know all about personal finance by the time they get to campus and we know that’s far from the case. Only a few high schools actually teach basic personal finance classes to students and most parents do a lousy job of teaching money management skills to their teens before sending them off to college. So is it any surprise so many students wind up getting into credit card debt?

I’m not really sure why the federal government and school officials don’t make a larger effort to help college students learn about money issues. You can’t just throw a few pamphlets at students and expect them to figure it out overnight. I get over 100 personal finance books in the mail every year but I hardly promote any of them because I’ve learned that most students think they’re too boring to read.

If you want students to learn about finance, then you’ve got to make it more fun for them. That’s what we’re trying to do with Young Money. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I know that the students we do reach are always grateful for our help in getting their finances under control. I just wish other groups would step up and join us so we could help a lot more students.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 3:37 pm by Daniel and is filed under Students, Credit Cards and Debt, YOUNG MONEY magazine.

Tags: young adult, personal finance, financial literacy, college student, university student, financial education, college campus

Personal Finance Roundup

A Visual Guide to the Morningstar Mutual Fund Comparison Tool [Generation X Finance] "This tool allows you to compare one fund against another, or many other funds and display the results in an easy to read format." Don't panic if your 401(k) plan stinks [MarketWatch] "What if your defined-contribution plan at work features a lineup of mutual funds that seems lackluster? Here are five suggestions."

Cash Out and Live Off Your Investments [Smart Money]
"Books about early retirement are steady sellers, and virtual communities of would-be escape artists thrive on the web. Fortunately, it doesn't take an enormous nest egg to fund a life-changing move. We interviewed financial experts and early retirees to find out how to get out while you're young."

Insurance you didn't know you had [MSN Money] "Your home, auto and medical coverage could be better than you think. Here are 11 scenarios for which you might be pleasantly surprised to learn you can file a claim."

— FREE MONEY FINANCE

Young Money, the Personal Finance Magazine for College Students

Todd Romer, excecutive director of Young Money magazine, recently sent me a couple of copies for review. Romer writes:

Young Money is published bi-monthly and is the only national money magazine for the college market. Our editorial objective is to inspire, inform and motivate today’s young adults to begin managing their money at an early age. We have increased our distribution now to nearly 140 schools.

I didn’t expect much from the magazine, but I’ll admit I was pleasantly surprised. Despite a couple of flaws, Young Money provides solid personal finance information aimed squarely at its target audience.

Each issue features a cover story profiling a celebrity. The April/May 2007 issue contained an interview with Cleveland Indians centerfielder Grady Sizemore. The June/July issue hooked up with “hip-hop’s new sensation”, Miss Issa. Each of these celebrity spotlights takes four of the magazines 32 pages. That’s too bad. While they’re mildly inspirational, they don’t have anything to do with personal finance.

Fortunately, the rest of the magazine is more focused, covering a variety of money topics. Each of the two issues I read included smart articles on entrepreneurship, one of the most-overlooked aspects of personal finance. Each issue also included information on cards, internships, and travel.

The April/May issue included an introduction to money market funds, information on maximizing your scholarship eligibility, and a seemingly irrelevant piece about the Macworld Expo that introduced the iPhone. The June/July issue offered two great articles on job hunting — one on résumés and one on interviews — three stories on entrepreneurship, and a special section on how to buy a car, including tips for responsible use of credit.

My favorite part of each issue was the last-page column from Sanyika Calloway Boyce, a financial fitness coach. In one issue she wrote about reaching financial goals, and in the other she described how to make the leap from living on a college budget to maintaining a real-world salary.

I didn’t find any bad advice in Young Money, and I found one or two things that could be of use for future stories at Get Rich Slowly. My only real complaint is with the celebrity profiles. Perhaps these are used as bait. Perhaps they’re the best way to attract a student’s eye. Perhaps a young woman will pick up Young Money to read about Miss Issa and then stick around to read about responsible use of credit. If this is the intention, I have no complaints.

Also, the layout is confusing at times, at least for an old guy like me. In more than once instance, the header information for an article — the title and author, etc. — were at the bottom of the page, which left me scratching my head.

Ultimately, I think Young Money does a good job of presenting personal finance topics in a way that’s accessible to college students. If you have a kid in college, the magazine would make a fine gift. If you’re a college student who has read Young Money, what are your thoughts?

You can learn more about the magazine, as well as sample actual articles, by visiting the Young Money web site.

(3 votes, average: 2.33 out of 5)

Loading ...

Digg This! • Save to del.icio.us • Subscribe to this feed • 6 comments on this item

You may also be interested to read:

• Why I Love Community College
• Personal Finance Mags for Twentysomethings?
• Financial Education: Are Schools Doing Enough?
• Reminder: Enter the Get-Rich-Slowly Holiday Tips Contest
• Financial Literacy for All Ages
• In Praise of Young Entrepreneurs
• Are College Funds Necessary?
• The ThriftShopper.Com
• Extreme Personal Finance: How to Pay Off Your Mortgage in Three Years
• Huge Debts Paid Off Fast

Carnival of Personal Finance #117

The latest Carnival of Personal Finance has been published at KMull.com. A number of great articles were selected for Editor’s Choice and Honorable Mention:

• Now Not to Overpay When Buying a Home
• Surefire Ways to Shrug Off Market Slides
• Dissecting Leona Helmsley’s Will
• Personal Finance is Like Driving a Car
• 25 More Money Confessions
• No More Free Money – Pulling The Plug On Credit Card Arbitrage
• Does Dollar Cost Averaging Work?
• 5 Romantic Outdoor Day Date Ideas Under $30

KMull did a great job of categorizing the posts with specific comments. Take some time to read this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance.

By the way, the Carnival is still taking requests to host for the remainder of the year. Read the requirements and then apply here if you are interested.

Online Banking Roundup: WT Direct vs. HSBC, ING, and Emigrant

I recently ran across a new online bank known as WT Direct. They’re apparently affiliated with Wilmington Trust FSB, and they’re offering 5.26% APY. There’s no minimum deposit required, and this rate is good on any balance for 60 days, after which you have to maintain a balance of $10,000 to get the high rate - otherwise it drops to 0.6%. Yikes! If you slip up and dip below the $10k threshold, you’ll certainly pay the price. On top of this, they have a less than stellar Bankrate Safe & Sound rating…

While their homepage trumpets a four star rating in 2006, WT Direct currently scores a single star on the Bankrate Star Rating. In case you’re not familiar with this metric, it basically reflects institutional solvency. The rankings top out at five stars (Superior), and they were rated as “Sound” a year ago, but… Their one star rating means that they’re currently considered to be amongst the “Lowest Rated” banks. At least they’re FDIC insured… You might need it!

So what about the other options out there?

My personal favorite is HSBC Direct. HSBC offers 5.05% APY with no fees and no minimum balance, and a pretty good online interface. This is where we keep the vast majority of our liquid savings.

Next up, ING Direct. ING lags behind a bit in terms of interest rates at 4.5% APY with no fees and no minimum balance. That being said, they have a slick online interface, and they really shine when it comes to creating sub-accounts for tracking your money.We used to use ING fairly heavily, but ultimately switched to HSBC for the substantially higher rates. We still have an account there, however, and use the sub-account feature to manage our kids’ bank accounts.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Emigrant Direct. Like HSBC, Emigrant pays 5.05% APY with no fees and no minimum balance. While their online interface is serviceable, it’s nothing to write home about. Moreover, they lost my trust a little over a year ago when they shut down their web site over a weekend for a planned upgrade and then struggled for a week or two to get back online. As far as I’m concerned, locking people out from accessing their funds (even if it’s unintentional) is the cardinal sin of banking, so they’ve lost our business and we likely won’t be going back. That being said, I do have to admit that I’ve left $10 on deposit there to keep the account open just in case we have a change of heart.

I know there are other options out there, but in this case I’m really only focusing on the new kid on the block as well as those online savings banks with which I have firsthand experience.

So just to summarize:

HSBC Direct - Two thumbs up. Great rate, solid interface.
ING Direct - Less competitive rate, but great for managing multiple subaccounts.
Emigrant Direct - Great rate, serviceable website, but shaky performance in the past.
WT Direct - Excellent rate, high minimum, poor Bankrate.com ratings.

Ask Mint | Endowment plans offer safety, security with adequate returns

Endowment policies are essentially accumulation plans that may or may not guarantee a certain amount of cash at the end of a specified पेरिओद

On Insurance | Rajesh Relan

in India isn’t just growing, but also becoming more sophisticated in terms of product offerings. To help readers keep ahead of developments in this business, Mint features a Q&A on insurance every Monday

I am a 26-year-old man. If I have group life insurance through my job, do I still need an individual life insurance policy?

Group life insurance is a benefit that some people receive through their employers। As you are at a young age, you might opt for other career opportunities. The insurance your current employer offers may cease the moment you leave that job. So, it is advisable that your own personal policies be the mainstay of your coverage, with the firm’s offerings serving as an incremental source of protection.

I am 25 years old, and single. I have been advised to buy an endowment policy. What are its advantages?

Endowment policies are essentially accumulation plans that may or may not guarantee a certain amount of cash at the end of a specified period, or when the eventuality happens; whichever is earlier। The advantage of the plan is that the emphasis is on safety and security with adequate returns. The protection element offered under endowment plans is valid till the end of term. The plan can be used by you to save for specific purposes such as planning your wedding, buying a house, taking a vacation etcetera, with added benefit of protection.

I am 28 years old, and planning to buy a life insurance policy—how can I add to my insurance against an accident or a similar mishap?

Most companies offer riders on the base policy to offer benefits in case of disability arising from accident related mishaps। You can opt for a personal accident benefit rider that is a low-cost additional benefit, and is paid to the nominee in case the insured’s death is caused by an accident.

Readers are welcome to write in with their queries to askmint@livemint।com. The questions will be answered by senior executives from leading insurance firms.

This week’s expert is Rajesh Relan, managing director, MetLife.