Category: Financial & Investment Tips
GF¢ 050: 5 Reasons Why You Should Never Buy a Variable Annuity
Breathe in. Smell that? It’s the stench of a variable annuity. If you just threw up a little bit in your mouth, I don’t blame you. If you didn’t, you probably don’t know enough about variable annuities. What’s a variable annuity? It’s a contract between an owner and an issuer whereby the owner agrees to give the issuer principal, and in return, the issuer guarantees the owner variable payments over time. Sounds innocent enough, but are they? Variable annuities are one of those products of which I can pretty much make a blanket statement and say they’re horrible. “Why are they horrible, Jeff?” I thought you’d never ask. Let me count the ways! 1. You’ll Pay High
The New Visa Clear Prepaid Program Simplifies Prepaid Card Fees
Visa just simplified the confusing world of prepaid debit card fees. In order to help consumers avoid the complex maze of fees sometimes charged by prepaid cards, Visa recently announced a new designation for prepaid products with simple fee structures and no “gotchas.” The new set of standards, called the Visa Clear Prepaid Program, aims to make prepaid cards with simple monthly fee plans easily identifiable for the average prepaid customer. This move comes on the heels of a recent proposal from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) which called for strong, new federal protections in the prepaid market. According to the CFPB, an unprecedented surge in the use of prepaid cards (from $1 billion loaded in 2003 to $65 billion in 2012) has left consumers without
Republic Wireless Now Pays Customers for Unused Cellular Data
Last month I reviewed Republic Wireless (How Republic Wireless Can Save You $10,976.76), and it generated a lot of interest. In general, the comments in response affirmed that Republic is on to something with its low prices and “hybrid calling technology”. But now there’s more on the Republic Wireless story, as if the package weren’t already attractive enough. In the last few days, the company dropped a bombshell on the cell phone universe by announcing that it plans to pay its customers for their unused cellular data (Republic Wireless Announces Industry First: Plans That Pay Customers for Unused Cellular Data). Can you imagine any cell phone provider making such an offer? But such dramatic developments seems to be the norm for Republic Wireless. This
4 Practical Money Skills You MUST Teach Your Children
In a perfect world, parents and educators (not to mention society itself) would work hard to make sure that our children are financially literate. In that utopian ideal, money skills would be considered just as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic, infants would cut their teeth on money books, and not knowing how to budget would have the same stigma as being illiterate. Unfortunately, the real world simply doesn’t work like that. Society encourages debt rather than budgeting, schools barely touch on financial skills if they cover them at all, and parents who never learned money skills themselves don’t even know that they need to teach their children this stuff. I know that I wasn’t taught this stuff in schools. Were you? It’s up to individuals
The One-Page Financial Plan Book Review
The One-Page Financial Plan Book Review is a post from: Faithful With A Few. If you enjoy it, please subscribe to the Feed.I enjoy learning and discussing personal finance. The day-to-day things like budgeting, credit decisions, debt repayment. Where I start to get a bit intimidated is matters of investing. So, I admit, when I learned that The One-Page Financial Plan was written by financial planner, Carl Richards, I was a bit apprehensive about reading it.Once people start talking stocks, bonds, derivatives (blah blah blah), I totally shut down, and I had no clue how to avoid the ‘shut down’ when I have to review the book!I think I spent a few days just poking it with a stick.
4 Ways to Think Like a Millionaire
What do you think of when you imagine being a millionaire? Do you look forward to the idea of buying a big house and a fancy car? Do you imagine that riches are something that you will only acquire through incredible good luck? Do you think about swimming in a vault full of coins, like Scrooge McDuck? (DuckTales was one of my favorite cartoons growing up, by the way) If any of those is the case, then you are not thinking like a millionaire. Despite what many of us non-millionaires might think, self-made wealth is not so much about a lucky break or knowing the right people. It’s about a mindset—one that anyone can develop. Here are four ways you can start thinking like a
Command and Control: From Baseball Pitches to Your Money
When your life is out of control, nothing seems to go right. You have the worst luck, and you can’t seem to get ahead with anything, whether a project, a goal, or even simple things like taking care of daily tasks. Regaining control of your life is imperative. For your finances, you can do that by paying attention, changing your mindset, taking an inventory, tracking changes in your finances, budgeting, and seeking support from family, friends, and even strangers. This was one of the major premises behind Consumerism Commentary. The same is true in all aspects of your life, especially those in which you’d like to see change or improvement. Control comes through the practice of making better decisions, those decisions that take your future
Why We Should Give in Secret
Giving is giving, right? Not if you’re a Christian. There are ways to give – and God wants us to give – and there are ways we shouldn’t give. One way we shouldn’t is giving publicly. As Christians, we’re told to give in secret. Our mission in life is to glorify God in all that we do – when we give in public that may not be exactly what’s happening. It could be our secular selves rising to the surface. How the World Gives When the secular world gives it’s often with considerable public fanfare, and even trumpeted in the media. The giver is exalted for his generosity, the charity for its new resource, and all of society celebrates the basic goodness of humankind. The giver
15 Kitchen Tips & Tricks that would Make MacGyver Proud
MacGyver. Remember him? If you watched television in the later 80’s and into the early 90’s, you’ll know exactly who I am speaking of. He always had some trick up his sleeve and a way to solve nearly everything problem and he knew how to get out of every situation. Even life or death situations. He just always had THE solution. My kitchen can be a battle ground some days, but I’ve found some tips and tricks that I think would make him proud. Thanks to Pinterest, I have found numerous little things that I could do to solve issues in my kitchen, save time and aggravation. Check out 15 Kitchen Tips below as I pass on my MacGyver like tricks for you to
What’s Your Financial Personality?
Ever notice how finances can affect you emotionally? I’ve known people who hate the idea of spending their money altogether and some people who don’t know how to make a budget at all. What if there was a scale that you could use to classify your financial personality? Yes, I can see it now. Instead of making up a boring answer when your financial planner asks how things are going, you can simply select your personality from the chart and they’ll know exactly what to do to help. Unrealistic? Maybe so, but you might relate to a few of these: The Spending Freeze You’re the type of person who tries to avoid spending at all costs. You like to watch your savings grow and the thought
The Ultimate Bundle: Over 75 books worth $1,000+ for just $29
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