The stock market is a scary place for a lot of people, especially when you don’t take the time to understand how it works. Many people are afraid to invest because they don’t trust the market. But investing in the stock market can be an important part of building wealth, so it is crucial to… Read More
10 Money Mistakes in Your 20’s (as reported by Suba Iyer on fivecentnickel.com)
It takes most people a number of years before they decide that they need to get a handle on their finances. By the time we are thirty, we’re expected to know a lot about how live healthy financials lives. But what about your 20’s? What are we expected to know during the decade that most… Read More
Online Stock Trading Platforms (as reported by Mike Jelinek on thesimpledollar.com)
Investing in the stock market on your own is not for everyone, but for those people out there that take the time to learn how to invest intelligently, there is a decision to make outside of what to invest in: where to do the investing. Mike Jelinek, writing on The Simple Dollar, reviews and compares… Read More
Leave Your 401k Alone (as reported by Andrea Coombes on marketwatch.com)
One of the worst financial mistakes that someone saving for retirement can make is reaching for the cash in their retirement accounts too soon. A study by Fidelty found that 35% of people who left their jobs last year took some or all of the money in their 401k or IRA accounts in order to… Read More
Hedge Funds in your 401(k)? What to know first. (as reported by Ben Steverman via Bloomberg.com)
Because of U.S. regulatory rules, most hedge funds are limited to investors with $1 million or more in investable assets. The reasoning behind this is simple, these funds are considered a risky class of investment that could expose the typical retail investor to a potentially devastating financial loss. All this said, there is without a… Read More
A Word of Caution When Choosing a Tax Preparer (as reported by Alex H. Levy via the New York Times)
The April 15th IRS tax filing deadline is just around the corner; for many of us this means working with a tax preparation service to complete our returns. Many do not know that in most states a person can call themselves a tax preparer without any formal licensing or training. Undercover investigations into tax preparation… Read More
Is Credit Safer than Debit? (as reported by Yahoo Finance on finance.yahoo.com)
The debate over whether to use a debit card or a credit card continues, but recent data breaches as major US retailers, like Target incurred over the holidays, make security a primary concern when using all cards. So which is safer? This article from Yahoo Finance suggests that the fact that credit cards are not… Read More
Boost Your Tax Refund (as reported by Andre McNeil on Forbes.com)
This is the time of year when taxes are on everyone’s mind. Many of us count on a healthy tax refund in the spring to help us pay for important items we have waited for, or as a nice boost to our savings. So how can you ensure that you get the most back this… Read More
Obama Introduces myRA (as reported by Melanie Hicken on money.cnn.com)
If you don’t have access to an employer-sponsored retirement savings account, you will soon have a new option open up to you. In his State of the Union this year, President Obama introduced a brand new financial vehicle that is aimed at helping many low to middle income Americans save for retirement. Dubbed “myRA”, the… Read More
Negative Option Scams (as reported by Christopher Elliott on blog.mint.com)
Remember to always read the fine print. You’ve heard that before. It’s like buyer beware, and it reminds us to pay attention to all the details of a purchase when we make one. Scams, some legal and others not, abound. One such “scam” that companies use in hopes of making more money off of you… Read More