I have been paying almost $100 a month for insurance on my Chevy Trailblazer. I have full coverage and the vehicle is a 2003 model. I am 36 years old and have a perfect driving record. I started thinking that I was tired of paying this much so I started looking at options. Read more about Saving Money by Switching Insurance Companies?
One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to contributing to a savings account is treating the contribution as optional. This makes skipping a deposit so much easier, especially when there are other needs or wants clamoring for that money. If you begin to treat your savings contribution like another monthly bill, it will become easier to make sure you really get it into the bank. Read more about Treat Your Savings Account Like a Bill
I have talked about a variety of things in this blog as it relates to investment and how to earn and save money. In the next post, I really want to go into detail about financial ratios that are used to a great extent in financial statement analysis.
I think these financial ratios are a bit overrated from my point of view. I do agree that they give some insights into the past performance and future performance of a firm, but they don’t really give the broader picture is my one knock on them.
For instance, when analyzing the comparative performance of a business, it is hard to gather information when it needs a reference point from different time periods. The other criticism is that different accounting methods will result in wildly different ratio values. There is just something that seems to be more attractive about fundamental analysis and even technical analysis than by just simply looking at financial ratios to make important decisions about business valuation and other investment choices. Read more about The trouble with Financial Ratios
Forex has considerable advantages over other trading markets. The most convenient thing for me is the ability to trade continuously since the forex market operates for 24 hours except for weekends. It also allows for the chance for an investor to trade around the globe as was shown in that forex ad. The other thing with forex is that it is highly liquid being with it being a highly traded market that has average daily turnover in excess of $4 trillion.[1]
Forex.com also offers the chance to trade for free with a free practice account with $50K in virtual money that is very important in building experience as that is what is really needed most. But there is some difference in trading virtual money as compared to real money especially when it comes to your reactions and how you care about your trades. In other words, nobody is going to lose sleep over $10K in virtual money so it isn't good enough practice. Read more about Forex Trading
Last week, we talked about having an emergency fund. That got me thinking about how to decide you really need to use it. Obviously, a new outfit or an expensive birthday gift would not qualify, but the line is not so clear when it comes to other things that we spend on money on. Read more about What Constitutes an Emergency?
Identity theft happens every day. It is a horrible thing to go through and can take years for a person to fix. There is no sure way to avoid this happening to you, but there are several key steps you can take to do your best to prevent it from happening. If someone steals your identity, they will most likely rack up large debts in your name. You must then prove that the debts were created by someone else. The process to rebuild your credit is very complex and can literally take years. Read more about Important tips to Avoid Identity Theft
My husband and I were discussing the importance of our emergency fund yesterday, and speculating about how much you really need to have in an emergency fund. The general advice is to have six months’ of living expenses saved up at all times. While this may work for some families, those hit hardest by this economy may argue that more savings would be wiser. Read more about How Much Do You Really Need in Your Emergency Fund?
The dreaded day is slowly approaching. This year, Federal tax returns must be filed by April 17. There are many ways to prepare your tax returns, and some of the options are free. Read more about Tax Time is Approaching
The Wells Fargo Advantage Growth Fund is managed by Thomas Ognar and it seems to be bullish about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) which I was raving about in my post about the best five stocks to invest in 2012 on the Investment Talk blog on this site. The fund has Apple stock as its largest holding and has already picked a big time winner this year with railroad operator Kansas City Southern that went up 42 percent through November due to some pretty good earnings growth.
Do you really need the $80 unlimited data smartphone plan? Or event he $50 plan for that matter. Unless you need a smartphone to make a living, then you may not even "need" a smartphone. I said "need" not want".
There are countless other cell phone plans you can get that won't break the bank. Take that extra $40 to $70 a month and use it to pay off debt, save, or take a well-needed vacation.
Read more about Re-think Your Cell Phone Plan
If you are looking for a way to invest money that does not require a large amount of money, you may want to consider looking into buying penny stocks. Read more about Have you Ever Heard of Penny Stocks?
With over 100 million Americans in significant debt, and more and more each day falling into the debtor’s paradise of expiring debt, which under the statute of limitations states that they are no longer obligated to repay it, banks are looking for ways to collect on these disappearing dollars. Debt collectors, it seems, have discovered a way. Using agreements forged between debt collectors and banks, collectors are issuing new credit cards, even to individuals with rock bottom credit scores, if they agree to pay back a portion of their defunct debt balance. It sounds like many people are taking advantage of this dubious deal, and may be getting themselves into a whole new debt mess. Read more about Debt Collectors Resurrecting Borrowers' Debt With Credit Card Offers
I recently used my Amazon Prime borrowing credit to borrow 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget for my Kindle. Having been living the frugal lifestyle for several years now, there was a lot I already knew and many steps I already implemented, but like one Amazon reviewer wrote, there is still something for everyone in this book. Read more about 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget
By 2011, there were just over 7500 mutual funds in the US alone with total assets of $11.8 trillion and the figure was about $25 trillion for the entire globe.[1]
So why are they are so popular? A mutual fund is a type of collective investment scheme. This makes sense because of the benefits of economies of scale in bringing about cost sharing with other investors and the risk reductions that results from the diversification that happens when investing in a group rather than alone. But of course, there are also drawbacks of these type of investment funds. The main one being that investors will find it tough to reduce the fees they pay due to the fact that the market for mutual funds is not competitive.
In the United States, the top five mutual fund houses are Vanguard, Fidelity, American Funds, BlackRock and PIMCO.[2] Professional investment management is a benefit of mutual funds which greatly improves the returns and also the risk management. I think one of the reasons why I would put money in a mutual fund is that it allows me to join in investments that would otherwise only be offered to larger investors. However, this comes at the cost of the chance to customize if it was just your own money. Read more about The advantages and disadvantages of mutual funds
When facing foreclosure, it is important to act fast. If you are a homeowner who wishes to save your home, there are various options you may want to explore. One easy option is to refinance your mortgage. Help is available if you are committed to saving your home. Before you can consider foreclosure refinancing options, you must be delinquent on your mortgage payments. Even though you are behind on your mortgage, try to maintain your other monthly payment obligations since credit may play a role in your ability to refinance.