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Jun 28, 2008
It sounds like John McCain and his wife could use billQ. :) Read More
May 22, 2008
Here are two pieces of economic insight to chew on. The first is an article about John McCain's health care policy. I know it's politically charged, but it's full of valuable economic discussion, so let's get post-partisan for a second. Especially interesting is the comparison to the Credit Card Industry (read it to find out why credit card companies are almost always based in South Dakota or D... Read More
May 05, 2008
Everyone hates junk mail, but aside from being annoying, it can also be dangerous (dun, dun, dun...). That was very Dateline NBC, but seriously, pre-screened credit offers and unsolicited mail can leave you open to identity theft and can also tempt you to open too many lines of credit — both bad things. Two helpful tools for alleviating these problems are the DMA Choice Program and the Op... Read More
Mar 19, 2008
I recently had a conversation with a friend about savings plans, and a related issue of contributing to savings vs. paying down long-term debt came up. This is a common gray area when it comes to looking at the most effective way to budget and manage your money, and probably one of the best articles I have read on this subject is this one over at Kiplingers. It has a very good outline of the be... Read More
Mar 19, 2008
The age old debate over 'Renting vs. Buying' contains many myths, but it's important to look past these misconceptions and towards the facts. A recent article on the eFinanceDirectory tackles some of these points in a very direct and easy to understand manner. It's worth a read. Read More
Feb 21, 2008
David Cay Johnston, a New York Times investigative reporter and author of Perfectly Legal, and Free Lunch, was recently interviewed by Tom Ashbrook on On Point. In the interview he talks about how the American economy has been hijacked by corporate special interests as the middle-class and small-business owners are being left behind. You can also listen to another interview with him on Fresh Air. Read More
Jan 31, 2008
Philip Brewer over at the Wise Bread blog has written an interesting post called A better way to create a budget. In the post he looks at a budgeting technique called "zero-based budgeting," which is actually something Jimmy Carter used during his term in office. Basically, the concept is that you don't use your spending history to determine your budget, instead you use $0.00 as the starting po... Read More
Jan 14, 2008
Not to be all doom and gloom on a Monday, but it's important to understand the state of the economy, as it obviously has a big effect on our personal finances. For a very concise and easy-to-understand explanation of the current credit crisis (stemming from a debt crisis), check out this article by Hale Stewart at the Huffington Post. When you hear talk of a threat of recession, these are the ... Read More
Jan 11, 2008
If you are looking to start off 2008 with a look at your credit score (which is a good idea), please be careful who you go through. Definitely avoid all those "free" credit report offerings. They are contingent on a bunch of other services that more than make up for the "free" part of the equation (and some may even be scams). The one place you can be sure is safe and completely free is annualc... Read More
Jan 10, 2008
J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly has posted a handful of tips on how to Take Control of Your Finances in 2008. He has some great recommendations — though I've always been a little weary of his "finances on auto-pilot" practice. I still think it's important to look over your bills each month in order to understand the charges and rates. It's also important to error check. Show me someone who's... Read More