Boomers on brink of retirement wonder if they can afford it:
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Scholz doesn’t go that far, but he does question the popular notion that most baby boomers are “blowing it” in their preparation for retirement. He says the group’s research showed that, by and large, Americans born between 1931 and 1941 were faring quite well financially during their retirement. “That was very surprising to us,” he says. “So then an interesting question is, does the experience of that generation carry over to households that are younger?”
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“They’re like, ‘Well, I finally got a cell phone.’ They use a computer but it’s one that’s eight years old. Their cars run forever.” That mindset is far different from most baby boomers, Haunty argues. To them, items once viewed as luxuries are now considered necessities. And, he adds, this “propensity to consume” is even more prevalent among Americans in their 20s and 30s. Haunty says he’s not advocating that baby boomers “save every penny and wear the same jeans they wore 10 years ago. But they’ve got to strike a balance.”
Well said. If you have enough money to afford whatever you want and can maintain an emergency fund, buy disability insurance, buy health insurance, save for retirement, avoid personal debt, save for children’s education… great. If not, then choices need to be made about what is most important and then you get to live with the consequences of those choice.
Walgreens: $117, Eckerd: $115, CVS: $115, Sam’s Club: $15, Costco: $12
Those aren’t typos. Walgreens charges $117 for a bottle of the same pills for which Costco charges $12.
It pays to comparison shop for you prescription drugs.
It is difficult to imagine trying to live without the convenience of credit cards. Yet many get into financial trouble in part due to their misuse of credit cards. By following a few simple rules you can avoid the missteps and use credit cards to improve you personal finances instead of falling into the credit card traps.
First, don’t use your credit card for loans. Pay off your balance each month. Pretty obvious advice but way way too many people don’t follow it. If you use your credit card for a loans – 98% of the time that is a mistake and big risk to your personal financial future. Don’t do it. There is a reason pretty much all the advice from financial advisers on credit cards starts with this – it is the most important advice.
Second, if you don’t follow the advise above pay off your loan as soon as possible. Payment the minimum payment is huge mistake. You should not be making any discretionary purchases if you are not paying down your credit card debt substantially each month.
Continue reading credit card tips.
This tip is a bit sneaky but seems perfectly legitimate to me (I have not tried it). Essentially you are exploiting the sneaky overpriced protection stores try to trick customers into buying. Personally I just turn down the stuff they try to trick me into buying. I like this tip because it goes after a tactic companies use to trick customers. I don’t like companies trying to use gimmicks to trick customers out of money. Why they would be so silly as to lower the price of the electronic equipment rather than reducing the price of the ridiculously overpriced “protection” is beyond me but as far as I can tell if they do they open themselves up to this strategy (which I admit I wouldn’t use but for those more aggressive souls out there it might be appealing). Outsmart Best Buy, Circuit City… Save Hundreds on Electronics.
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They have however recently caught on at some stores and will not allow you to back out in the store. However, they can not prevent you from returning the warranty within 30 days for a full refund.
Fake Checks That Make You Pay:
If you want to avoid being a victim of a fake-check scam, follow this one piece of advice from Grant: Don’t ever accept a check if part of the deal involves you sending or wiring back some of the money.
Housing sales drop in 40 states:
While there is no agreed upon definition of bubble bursting, a almost 3% decline certainly can’t be seen as a “bursting bubble” can it?
Again hardly data of bubble bursting proportions.
Related: Coming Collapse in Housing? – Beginning of the End of Housing Bubble? – Colored Bubbles
Making telemarketers pay — in cash
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, signed into law by George Bush the elder, led to creation of the ragingly popular Do Not Call List. But tucked away in the bill was another important provision that entitles consumers to take what’s called a “private right of action.” For each violation of the act, consumers can sue for a $500 penalty. Violations include calling after a consumer has told a company to stop, or failing to provide the consumer with a copy of the firm’s Do Not Call policy.
In his most recent case, heard in January in Sacramento, Lammé was awarded $3,500 for seven violations allegedly committed by Country Club Mortgage Inc. of Visalia. David Mitchell, vice president of Country Club Mortgage, said he couldn’t comment on the litigation.
Good. Lets put those who don’t follow the law out of business and get yourself some money at the same time.
Related: Info from Lammé to help you earn some money from telemarketers – Charity Telemarketers – Investor Protection Needed – Real Free Credit Report
From the official US Federal Trade Commission site:
Viewing your credit report is an important step to financial security. You should review your credit reports annually (at least) to correct and any errors. Also doing so can be a tool to help you spot identity theft. The credit report site also has a large frequently asked question section with answers to questions like: What is a credit score? How do I request a “fraud alert” be placed on my file? Should I order all my credit reports at one time or space them out over 12 months? (I would suggest spreading the requests out during the year myself).
One of the goals for this blog is to help people protect themselves from predatory behavior from corporations. I love capitalism and love being able to benefit from the innovations created by the marketplace. I wish companies tried to do well financially by providing value to the customer. This is what Google, Toyota, Berkshire Hathaway, Apple… do.
However there are many that seek to trick and take advantage of gullible customers. This is especially true of financial companies. If a company tries to trick you by selling you on a less than truthful description of their offer (such as $1 for the first month, or 1% interest for the first 6 months) my experience leads me to believe they don’t have faith that they offer a real value. They don’t believe people would buy what they offer for the real price, so instead they try and trick people with misleading information. And there are plenty of financially illiterate people that fall for these bad deals – don’t let yourself be one of them.
Credit card companies seem to be especially bad at this type of behavior. Most often they just take advantage of people that don’t bother to understand what the real fees and interest rates are. The consumer obviously should accept some of the blame. But tricking people that are not financially literate is not an honorable way to make money. But there are many who don’t seem to mind taking advantage of those that don’t educate themselves.
Business Week has a good article on this topic: Cap One’s Credit Trap. And PBS, Frontline, has a good show on it too: The Secret History of the Credit Card.
Continue your financial literacy education by visiting both those sites and reading and watching (you can watch the entire PBS show online) and learning. If you don’t make the effort to increase your financial literacy it will cost you as others take advantage of you.
Questions You Should Ask About Your Investments from the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). They offer questions relating to: general investments, mutual funds, investment advisers, performance of your investments. Questions such as:
What are the total fees to purchase, maintain, and sell this investment? Are there ways that I can reduce or avoid some of the fees that I’ll pay, such as purchasing the investment directly? After all the fees are paid, how much does this investment have to increase in value before I break even?
How liquid is this investment? How easy would it be to sell if I needed my money right away?
Pretty basic stuff but it provides some questions that you should be able to answer. If you can’t then continue on your path to increase your financial literacy. We hope I site can help with that. In addition we link (on the left) to some good sites including fool.com and Marketplace that are useful in educating yourself.