Frequent readers of personal finance blogs are familiar with the importance of getting out of debt and staying out of debt. The reasons for avoiding debt are both economic and emotional, and they are so well known that we can call “staying out of debt” Personal Finance Truism #1. Let’s briefly review the reasons behind Personal Finance Truism #1:
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Back when we moved into our new home we had to sign up for a new TV/Internet/Phone provider as our previous company wasn’t in our new neighborhood. As far as cable goes, we like to have the basic channels but we’ve been fine without the premium movie channels. If we wanted to catch up on a series or a movie we had Netflix.
We were able to get a good deal on a combo that would actually be a few dollars cheaper than what we were paying for from our old provider and this new deal actually included some premium channels like Showtime. Cool, I’ll take a movie channel. When talking with the representative I asked if the package would include channels like IFC (Independent Film Channel) and Sundance (you ever see Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…? Awesome music interview show!). I was just making sure since I liked those channels and they weren’t considered premium on our previous provider. I was told they were included so I was happy. Fast forward to our installation day and our technician told me that IFC wasn’t included in the package I ordered. Grrr.
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From 2001-2006 I lost over a quarter million dollars trading stocks, options and currencies.
I was pretty much the dumbest 20-something ever.
Fast forward to today, and I’ve dug myself out of a pretty darn big debt hole, recently got married, and have even begun investing again.
Just not in stocks.
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A 401k plan generally involves four parties: the contributing employees, the sponsoring employer, a plan administrator, and various investment advisors.
A 401k plan aims to grow employees’ contributions through investments for retirement. To better manage a plan’s ongoing operation, once the plan has been set up by the employer for employee participation, the employer will usually appoint a plan administrator to take care of the plan with tasks such as recording keeping and accounting, providing customer service, giving educational seminars, etc…
But the actual investment of the plan contributions are managed by a group of investment companies, such as mutual fund brokerages (Vanguard, Fidelity, and ShareBuilder are a few), that the plan administrator has contracted with.
There are two major 401k fees in connection with plan administration and investment management.
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According to a 2009 study by Sallie Mae, the average credit card balance for college students was $3,173.
Only 15% of college freshman surveyed had a zero balance.
Of overall students, 82% carried a balance and had monthly interest charges. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 put new rules in place to help consumers better understand their credit cards and cut down on unfair practices from credit card companies. Of those rules, there are some that college students should be especially aware of.
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How can you survive a layoff?
Over the past few years, U.S. workers have been losing their jobs left and right, helping to bring the national unemployment rate to just under 10 percent currently. The majority of these jobless folks weren’t fired for poor performance, either. They were let go due to downsizing.
If you’ve heard this term around your place of business lately, you may want to know exactly what a downsize is, how to avoid it and what to do if you actually lose your job because of it.
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Have you seen the commercials for the ZYNC Card from American Express? I’ve got to say, I was curious about the card when I heard about how you can tailor the card to fit your lifestyle. As an American Express card user, and fan, I had to look into the Zync card further. Here’s what I found:
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Ever hear of the Schumer Box? It’s actually an important piece of information that you will find in a credit card application and something you need to be aware of when considering a credit card.
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It’s been many moons but I remember my first credit card. It was a retail card for A&S (remember that store?). I forget what I was buying (a sweater maybe?) but there was a discount offered if you signed up for their card. “What they hey,” I thought. Why not sign up and see what happens? So I did. And a few minutes later I was the proud owner of a new credit card! Ahh, memories.
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