Buying a home is a big deal.
You don’t want to go into it unprepared.
Before you buy a house, you want to make sure that you are getting the right house for you — and that it’s in the right neighborhood. The steps to buying a house start with thorough research on the topic.
As you research buying a house, here are 8 web sites that can help you narrow the field and find what works best for you:
Getting ready to choose a college?
Depending on your children and their interests, they may be looking at a report to determine the top party schools or the schools that rank highest for their chosen field.
Or, they may just care about the bottom line.
In that case, the annual PayScale report probably attracts their interest.
PayScale offers an annual college salary report that shows which colleges produce graduates that make the highest annual income. The report breaks this down by starting salary and mid-career salary. They also report how satisfied respondents are with their jobs. All the data is collected by those who self-report.
This year, schools in the top 10 are composed primarily of Ivy League schools, private schools, and schools that specialize in a field such as engineering. They are in order of ranking: Continue Reading
Would you like a credit card that didn’t hit you with a ton of fees? Maybe even a card that was fair to its users? How about a card with generous cash back? Let’s add in customer service from a company known for its customer loyalty?
Mix that all together and you get the Discover it® card.
Discover set out to make an all-in-one card made up of the best qualities that consumers are looking for. They created an all new line of cards: the Discover it card.
Let’s take a look at some quick basics of the Discover it card before we get to our review:
The flu season has hit with surprising force this year.
Some are calling it an epidemic while others think it is just a stronger flu season than normal. Nonetheless it seems to be everywhere across the country. Some areas are running out of flu vaccinations which isn’t helping matters. The government has set up a pretty slick website over at Flu.gov to guide you in getting through this year’s flu season.
Be sure to check with your insurance company to see if they cover flu shots. Even if they don’t most walk in clinics charge about $25. Compared to feeling ill for 7 days and having to miss work, $25 still seems like a bargain to me.
We all want to see better returns on our investments.
Whether you are building an income portfolio and want to, eventually, make it work for you in terms of viable revenue, or whether you are just hoping for decent returns for the long-term, what you do now can make a difference later.
One of the worst things you can do for your investment portfolio is to give in to knee jerk reactions.
It’s easy to let panic drive you into abandoning some part of your investment strategy. However, this can be a terrible idea.
Continue Reading
For the past several years the European Union — also called the Eurozone — has been enduring a deep financial crisis that has shaken the faith of the markets in the region.
The issue is complicated and difficult to summarize in a basic article, but having even the most basic understanding of how it might impact you personally is important.
The goal of this article is to highlight some of the key aspects of the European debt crisis so you as an individual are better prepared to seek more information on your own and avoid making critical financial mistakes.
A great way to save money and earn reward points is to use a 0% purchase credit card (note that these 0% rates are introductory).
These cards can be a great way to avoid paying interest while gaining credit card benefits, rewards, miles, or cash back. Additionally, 0% purchase credit cards offer an opportunity for you to make a slightly larger purchase, and pay it off over time.
Another bonus is the fact that many of these credit cards also come with 0% balance transfer offers.
It’s important to understand, though, that 0% Introductory rate purchase credit cards should be used carefully, and with planning.
When used as part of a plan, o% Introductory rate purchase cards can give you the advantage of a great introductory rate, and the ability to rack up the points or miles. And, because you have an introductory period, you can take two, three months, or longer to pay off a larger purchase.
Theoretically, students should go to school and learn simply for the sheer love of learning and the knowledge that studying hard will eventually land them a good paying job (though that assumption is getting harder and harder to prove in these current economic times).
But is learning for the love of learning and a promise of a brighter future enough?
Or, should we pay our students to learn?
Some may argue that paying students to get good grades, whether they are elementary, middle school, high school or even college students, is akin to bribery. These people worry that students will always expect a reward for every good action and test and that they won’t be intrinsically motivated to study just for the sake of learning.
While there is some truth to this concern, the simple fact is that not everyone is a good student.
Continue Reading
The stock markets are often referred to as “the stock market”, as if it’s a single unified market.
The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth.
What we refer to as the stock market is actually a collection of markets, some domestic, some foreign.
What are the various stock markets, and why are they different?
As expected our saints in Congress “came through” at the last possible moment to kick the proverbial debt, tax, and spending can down the road for a little bit.
A deal was struck, the middle class was “saved” — or was it? — and everyone can focus on using this small planned victory in the next election cycle.
…said the cynic.
Nonetheless your taxes won’t be jumping up by 27% next year. Instead, a 2% discount in the Social Security tax that has been in place for a few years will disappear. Many will moan and complain about having less money in their pockets and how this is a tax increase. I see it more as you used to be able to use a coupon someplace, but now the store isn’t accepting 2% off coupons anymore. The drop from 6.2% tax to 4.2% was meant to be temporary to boost the economy.
Considering the rate has been 6.2% since 1990, hasn’t been below 5% since 1973, and hasn’t been below 6% since 1988… I’d say it is the removal of a discount. But people will still complain about losing 2% next year, and that’s understandable I suppose. Just realize that you shouldn’t have had that extra 2% for the last few years, move on, and try to save or earn more money this year.
