Last month Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced the roll out of QE3—the third installment of a plan to intervene more directly into the financial sector of the U.S. economy.
We hear and read a lot about it in the media and on the web, but how much does it affect us?
As individuals, very little; but collectively, the effect is more substantial.
President Barack Obama and Republican Nominee Mitt Romney sparred with words this week for the first official debate.
Both debaters shared their campaign’s views on heavy hitting topics, undoubtedly telling some white lies in order to sway voters. Both parties promise to fix all of your problems all while not increasing taxes or cutting funding to programs. Both are not telling the truth.
Even though a million dollars isn’t what it used to be, the goal of becoming a millionaire is one that many still strive for. If you have a net worth of $1 million, you are thought to have truly “made it.”
Becoming a millionaire doesn’t have to be hard, though.
In reality, the steps you take toward becoming a millionaire are actually fairly simple. The theory behind becoming a millionaire is fairly easy to grasp, although actually implementing your plan can be a little more difficult.
Many financial experts advocate knowing your financial personality.
Investopedia defines five major financial personalities: big spenders, savers, shoppers, debtors, and investors. While these financial tests can be entertaining, most people fall into a several categories or none of the categories.
What can be more beneficial than learning what broad category you fit into is to identify your spending triggers and how to deal with them.
For instance, I am generally frugal.
I hang up my clothes rather than dry them in the dryer, my car has over 100,000 miles and is 8 years old, and I barter for services that I need rather than paying for them.
My one spending weakness is food, specifically going out to eat.
Generally, my desire to dine out is motivated by stress. If I have had a busy or chaotic day, there is nothing I want more than to sit in a restaurant, relax, and have someone cook and clean up the mess. To combat this trigger, I try to find other ways to relax, but I also prepare freezer meals so food is already prepared on a crazy day. If I still want the dining out experience, I have learned to prepare ahead by buying deal certificates to our favorite restaurant so we can dine out for less.
By taking these steps, my family has curbed our dining out excursions from several times a week to once or twice a month. I recognized my spending trigger and found solutions for avoiding it or ways to dine out for less.
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Your credit score is an incredible tool that can build up your life if used properly and tear it down if abused.
The difference between a great credit score and an okay credit score might be the difference in 0.5% interest on a home or auto loan and thousands of extra dollars of interest paid.
If you’re looking to protect your credit score you need to be aware of the difference between a soft credit pull and a hard credit pull. One can damage your credit score while the other is mostly harmless.
Do you know the difference?
Here’s a look at the two types of credit report pulls.
Facebook has a revenue problem that it may have solved a portion of recently.
The company announced a new function today called Facebook Gift where you will get a friendly reminder that you have a friend with a birthday, and you should send them a gift. When you buy a gift through Facebook the company gets a cut of the revenue.
This is a much preferred model of earning revenue compared to banner ads like Facebook has now. A vast majority of those ads are meaningless to users, and a majority of clicks on those ads are alleged to be by bots that are designed to milk advertisers.
I prefer to buy gifts for my friends because I know them not because a social media site says to, but that doesn’t mean Facebook’s stock price won’t go up.
Ten years ago the Internet used to be a luxury that wealthy families could afford, but now most have it.
According to Nielsen, of the 80% of American homes that have a computer, 92% of them have Internet access.
With this access, they also have a powerful tool to save money.
Sure, we have to pay monthly for our Internet service, but my guess is that people who use the Internet wisely save at least as much as they spend for Internet access, if not more.
Have you given thought lately to all of the ways the Internet saves you money?
Here are just a few I came up with:
Getting into debt is really easy if someone is willing to give you a credit line. It’s the getting out of debt that is the hard part.
Many financial gurus advise against debt consolidation. There’s the old adage of “You can’t go into debt to get out of debt.”
While consolidating does have its risks, it can be beneficial in helping you turn your finances around.
First let’s look at the positives and negatives of using debt consolidation to helping you get out of debt once and for all.
One of the “rules of thumb” that is often expressed when it comes to credit cards is that it’s important that you avoid paying an annual fee.
Even with rewards credit cards, many suggest that you stay away from the annual fee. After all, your annual fee reduces the value of the rewards that you earn.
There are some credit cards, though, that might be worth the annual fee.
These are premier credit cards, and they often come with annual fees that many of us consider excessive: $100, $200, or even $450.
Why would you pay that much for a credit card?
As with all things personal finance, it largely depends on what you expect to do with the credit card, and the benefits that you get. If you really look at the perks associated with a premier credit card, you might be surprised.