A little while back we reported about Bank of America’s move to start a $5 a month debit card fee for those who used their card for purchases. In that article, two things we talked about were 1) Making some noise and let BofA know you aren’t happy about the new debit card charge, and 2) Switch your account to another bank, like a credit union or an online bank with free checking.
Well guess what?
My husband recently completed his Ph.D., and he has since taken on a full-time job. Now that he is settling into his career and bringing in more money than he did with his assistantship, we are ready to tackle our debt, which includes student loan and credit card debt. We recently wrote up our debt repayment plan and found that after minimum payments, we only had $2.69 extra to apply to our debt snowball. Using this basic formula, we would be completely debt free by February, 2017, roughly 5.5 years from now.
However, we don’t want our debt repayment to stretch out that long.
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There’s no shortage of hackers in today’s cyberworld and this has many people concerned about security when shopping online. Are you looking for an option that may help alleviate the fear of giving out credit card numbers?
Then having a virtual credit card number may just be what you’re looking for.
A great deal of focus has been placed on dividend investing lately, and for good reason: Dividend stocks (especially dividend aristocrats) often have solid fundamentals, and can usually weather stock market downturns. On top of that, you receive regular income from dividend stocks.
Stocks that pay dividends are paying out portions of their profits to shareholders. This money is paid out monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually, and is paid out regardless of share price. You can use dividend income for whatever you want; it’s yours and can’t be taken back.
One aspect of dividend investing is taking part in a DRIP – a Dividend Re-Invesment Plan. Let’s explore what DRIP investing is and how it can grow your wealth.
We need to do what we can to stimulate housing and the economy. Right?
That seems to be the overriding sentiment aimed at the new proposed bill authored by Senators Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah) , the section titled, “Increasing Home Ownership by Priority Visitors,“ who want to give foreigners a visa if they purchase $500,000 or more in American homes.
It can’t be just any real estate, either. They can’t buy land, warehouses, or office buildings. We’re talking about residential real estate like town houses, homes, or condos. They’re free to use them as investment property but the minimum purchase is $250,000 per property. If they want to purchase 10, $50,000 homes they can do that but they won’t qualify for the visa.
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Do you fly with Southwest Airlines? Would you like a free flight and many other benefits as well (like earning points towards flights, points you can use for international travel, and not paying for your bags to fly, and more)?
Of course you would!
See how the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card can work for you in this review.
When car insurance companies look at your risk profile, they take a number of factors into account. From your driving record, to your coverage amounts, to your credit score, an insurance company wants to get an idea of how likely it is that they will have to pay out on a claim on your behalf.
One of the factors that insurance companies look at when setting premium amounts is your age.
If you want to save money on your insurance premiums, it helps to understand how age affects what you pay. There might not be a lot you can do about it, since you can’t change your age, but you can compensate for your age.
Let’s take a look at how age affects your car insurance and what you can do about it.Continue Reading
Imagine working 40 years to fund a retirement that will last for 30; does it sound impossible? Not if you live in a perfect world—but this isn’t, so that’s why we’ll be talking about whether your investments cover 30 years of retirement here.
A 30 year retirement is becoming the reality for more people all the time. It happens when people retire at 62 or even 65, and then live into their 90s. This is happening for more people than ever and by all indications it will be even more common in the future.
Even if you don’t think you’ll live into your 90s, prudence dictates that you be prepared anyway. Healthier living and stunning medical advances are causing people to live far longer than they ever expected and the possibility that you’ll be one of them is increasing steadily.
Will you be ready for it financially?
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Many U.S. citizens would prefer to pay full price rather than negotiate. Sometimes it is because they feel uncomfortable negotiating and other times it is because they have become emotionally attached to the thing they want to purchase and don’t want to try to negotiate for fear of losing it.
Psychologists recognize the power of emotional attachment and suggest that if you do want to negotiate for an item, do not hold it or touch it because it shows you are already emotionally attached to the item and “own” it in your mind, which lowers your negotiating power.
While many of us aren’t privy to private negotiations, a barrage of television shows allow us to watch others negotiate—successfully and unsuccessfully. If you have ever watched TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress, you may be surprised, as I often am, to see a woman go into the bridal shop with a firm budget of say, $4,000. Perhaps a friend suggests she tries on a beautiful dress, and she does. She falls in love with the dress and sees herself walking down the aisle in it. It is HER dress.
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The World Series started this week and while you might think it is terrible to lose the championship series it turns out it really isn’t all that bad for the players. There is a playoff pool created for all of the teams that breaks out a certain percentage to each team. The pool is formed by taking 60% of the total gate receipts for the first four games of the World Series and League Championship Series, and the first three games of each Division Series. The pool is then paid out to the teams in the playoffs with the World Series winner getting 36% of the pool, and the World Series loser getting 24% of the pool. The rest is split up to the losing teams earlier in the playoffs. Turns out 2nd place isn’t all that bad.