Banking
Mortgage Buster: Scam or Savior?
We were recently approached with an interesting question regarding making interest payments. While there are many different ways of manipulating money, the absolute hardest way is to manipulate it to the advantage of the average consumer or homeowner. The house is stacked against us and we are given the pesky task of paying interest on [...]
Your Guide to House Hunting
Both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have gotten quite a bit of media attention on their recent bailout, a la Bear Stearns. While the consequences for this hasn’t been felt yet (and I am pretty sure that we as tax payers are going to be integral in footing the bill) the ramifications of them going [...]
The 8 Worst Habits for Saving Money
We have written before about “Saving” and being “Frugal” and things like that but we haven’t really addressed what to look for when you might be in danger of not saving adequately. Here’s a short list and the resolution for each, take them with you!
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Jump Start Your Savings
Back in April, I wrote an article about Jump Starting Your Frugality, and it has seemingly been well received. Now we are going to approach this from another angle: Savings!
Getting your savings in order is a tricky thing…It’s just enough ‘out of sight, out of mind’ that you can easily dismiss it throughout the day [...]
You Deserve a Luxurious Vacation…Let Me Finance It For You
Today, I receive an email from CitiFinancial. This isn’t rare, being they send email to current and past customers at an annoying frequency. As you can tell from the text of the email (pasted below), Citi is offering a loan in order to finance a vacation. We all know financing a vacation is a horrible idea, [...]
Top Financial Leader Thinks Second Wave of Foreclosures Coming July 1
“We have a wave of foreclosures coming after July 1, which may make the first wave look small by comparison.” – Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Earlier this week, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, expressed his less than enthusiastic financial forecast for the coming months during a Securities [...]
How Much Were Your Closing Costs?
Do you remember closing on your first home loan? You sit down in a small room with your realtor, the seller, the seller’s realtor, and a title agency. The agency plops a huge stack of documents in front of you and one by one, you sign your paychecks away. If you are [...]
The Best and Worst Discount Brokers
I have always wanted to be the guy whose phone rings in a crowded room and say, “Excuse me, I have to take this one – it’s my broker.” Unfortunately for me, this big-headed moment probably will never come, thanks to the rise of discount brokers. Discount brokers like E*Trade and Fidelity, are companies that [...]
We May Have Found Your Stimulus Rebate Check!
Oh Eureka. So we are hearing from quite a number of people that they haven’t received their economic stimulus check yet, myself included. Well after we got a hot tip, (thank you Greg) the mystery has revealed itself. No thanks to the IRS mind you…
According to Turbo Tax, the difference comes [...]
Help Spread Frugality
A number of consumer advocate groups are teaming up in hopes of spreading the frugal gospel. In what will hopefully be a successful nationwide advertising campaign, the groups will try to change the spend first, borrow/spend second, and save last attitude that has slowly become our norm.
This new coalition has released a report, which [...]
Can I Save My Home?
As we all sit around, glued to our bank accounts, waiting for our stimulus check, the country is hurdling towards an unknown that won’t officially be settled until July. Once the magic “R” word comes out, I would imagine that there is going to be a new shock to the system as a whole. [...]
5 Quick Tips For Milking Your Money in the Market
As we move ahead with this diabolical ARS issue, its becoming more and more clear to me that the way Americans might be best suited for investing is a little more robotic and a lot less emotional. At least on some level. I am guilty of making decisions within my portfolio that are [...]
Investing in Real Estate vs. Stocks – Which Is Best?
For years, the United States Government has encouraged citizens to become homeowners, primarily with tax incentives like deductions from mortgage interest, mortgage points, and property tax. However, if the U.S. Government was held as a fiduciary by encouraging home-ownership, our tax breaks might subside based off recent numbers highlighted in a recent Washington Post article [...]
United State’s Newest Epidemic – Insufficient Financial Literacy
Opinion -
Congress, regulators, and the financial services industry are pointing fingers at each other in an attempt to pass the blame regarding who is at fault for our current credit crisis. In reality, everyone probably shares a piece of the blame; however, to leave a lack of sound financial literacy out of the equation [...]
Rare Opportunity – Interest Rate Cuts and Private Student Loans
MilkYourMoney.com has received an increasing amount of traffic directed to an earlier post titled, “How Do the Federal Interest Rate Cuts Affect My Student Loans,” in recent days and with good reason. The Federal Funds Rate has been dramatically reduced in the last couple of months, which has adjusted borrower’s monthly payments for nearly every [...]
