• curiouscat.com
  • About
  • Books
  • Glossary

    Categories

    • All
    • carnival (41)
    • chart (8)
    • Cool (35)
    • Credit Cards (45)
    • economic data (62)
    • Economics (439)
    • economy (126)
    • Financial Literacy (292)
    • Investing (324)
    • Personal finance (356)
    • Popular (43)
    • quote (194)
    • Real Estate (120)
    • Retirement (65)
    • Saving (90)
    • Stocks (158)
    • Taxes (51)
    • Tips (129)
    • Travel (7)

    Tags

    Asia banking bonds capitalism chart China commentary consumer debt Credit Cards credit crisis curiouscat debt economic data Economics economy employment energy entrepreneur Europe Financial Literacy government health care housing interest rates Investing Japan John Hunter manufacturing markets micro-finance mortgage Personal finance Popular quote Real Estate regulation Retirement save money Saving spending money Stocks Taxes Tips USA Warren Buffett

    Recently Posts

    • New Health Care Insurance Subsidies in the USA
    • Individual Stock Portfolio Investment Planning
    • Finding Great Investments Keeps Getting Harder
    • Huge Growth in USA Corporate Debt from 2005 to 2020
    • Retirement Portfolio Allocation for 2020
    • Tencent Gaming
    • Tucows: Building 3 Businesses With Strong Positive Cash Flow
    • The 20 Most Valuable Companies in the World – Jan 2019
    • 20 Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog in 2018
    • An Inverted Yield Curve Predicts Recessions in the USA
  • Blogroll

    • Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog
    • Freakonomics
    • I Will Teach You to be Rich
    • Jubak Picks
  • Links

    • Articles on Investing
    • fool.com
    • Investing Books
    • Investment Dictionary
    • Leading Investors
    • Marketplace
    • Trickle Up
  • Subscribe

    • RSS Feed

    Curious Cat Kivans

    • Making a Difference

Investing and Economics Blog

Asia banking bonds capitalism chart China commentary consumer debt Credit Cards credit crisis curiouscat debt economic data Economics economy employment energy entrepreneur Europe Financial Literacy government health care housing interest rates Investing Japan John Hunter manufacturing markets micro-finance mortgage Personal finance Popular quote Real Estate regulation Retirement save money Saving spending money Stocks Taxes Tips USA Warren Buffett

FDIC Limit Raised to $250,000

The FDIC limit has been raised to $250,000 which is a good thing. The increased limit is only a temporary measure (through Dec 31, 2009) but hopefully it will be extended before it expires. I don’t see anything magical about $250,000 but something like $200,000 (or more) seems reasonable to me. The coverage level was increased to $100,000 in 1980.

What does federal deposit insurance cover?
FDIC insurance covers funds in deposit accounts, including checking and savings accounts, money market deposit accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs). FDIC insurance does not, however, cover other financial products and services that insured banks may offer, such as stocks, bonds, mutual fund shares, life insurance policies, annuities or municipal securities.

Joint accounts are covered for $250,000 per co-owner. The limit is per person, per institution, so all your accounts at one institution are added together. If you have $200,000 in CDs and $100,000 in savings you would have $50,000 that is not covered.

FDIC is an excellent example of good government in action. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created in 1933 and serves to stabilize banking by eliminating the need to get ahead of any panic about whether the bank you have funds in is in trouble (which then leads to people creating a run on the bank…)

From an FDIC September 25 2008 news release: the current FDIC balance is $45 billion (that is after a decrease of $7.6 billion in the second quarter). The FDIC is 100% paid for by fees on banks. The FDIC can raise the fees charged banks if the insurance fund needs to get increased funds.
Read more

October 5th, 2008 by John Hunter | 2 Comments | Tags: Economics, Financial Literacy, Personal finance, Saving

Save Money on Printing

Unfortunately some companies think the way to make money is to try and con their customers out of cash. Certain industries seem to prefer this tactic: credit cards, banks, printer companies… To avoid rewarding them for behaving badly read: Take That, Stupid Printer!

It refused to print a thing until I replaced the cartridge. But I’m a toner miser…
But my printer’s pages hadn’t been fading at all. Did it really need new toner – or was my printer lying to me?
…
To find out, I did what I normally do when I’m trying to save $60: I Googled. Eventually I came upon a note on FixYourOwnPrinter.com
…
covering the sensor with a small piece of dark electrical tape tricked the printer into thinking he’d installed a new cartridge. I followed his instructions, and my printer began to work. At least eight months have passed. I’ve printed hundreds of pages since, and the text still hasn’t begun to fade.
…
many Hewlett-Packard printers can be brought back to life by digging deep into their onboard menus and pressing certain combinations of buttons. (HP buries these commands in the darkest recesses of its instruction manuals

You can believe what I am sure would be arguments by the companies for why breaking customers printers is helpful or you can save money and the environment by realizing that printer companies are notorious for trying to manipulate customers and use the internet to find ways to protect yourself and the earth from such abuse.

Related: Price Discrimination in the Internet Age – $8,000 Per Gallon Ink – Kodak Debuts Printers With Inexpensive Cartridges – Zero Ink Printing – HP Poor Service – Industry Standard?

August 21st, 2008 by John Hunter | 2 Comments | Tags: Personal finance, Tips

Where to Keep Your Emergency Funds?

Poorer Than You posed the question: Where to Stash Your Rainy Day Fund?

One of the most popular places for emergency funds right now, online savings accounts offer the sweet spot of liquidity and interest rate. The funds can be transferred to your checking account within 1-3 days. Recommended account: ING Direct’s Orange Savings.

Pros: Interest rate usually meets or beats inflation, transfers to checking account, separation from checking decreases temptation to spend, no minimum balance requirement

Cons: Slow transfers may hinder urgent emergencies, limited by federal law to 6 transfers out of the account per month
…
Personally, I’m using a credit card/online savings account combination right now. After I graduate from college and grow my emergency fund, I’ll move most of the fund to a money market savings account, and perhaps keep a couple hundred dollars in cash as well.

Here are my thoughts:

A money market fund is where I used to hold emergency funds, but things have changed. Money market funds are paying less than inflation (especially true inflation – which exceeds reported inflation). Right now high yield savings is where I have my emergency funds. You need to not only pick a good choice but pay attention to see if the marketplace shifts and certain options are not as appealing as before.

I would use a credit card for immediate spending needs and then paying the balance in full with funds from high yield savings. But right now high yield savings accounts pay more than money market funds, so just stay with high yield savings. If money market funds pay more in the future then I would put the emergency funds there.

Related: Personal Finance Basics: Health Insurance – personal finance tips

June 26th, 2008 by John Hunter | 2 Comments | Tags: Personal finance, quote, Saving, Tips

Save Money on Food

photo of wineberries

With the drastic increases in food prices recently a home garden an attractive way to save some money. I have planted a garden for several years. Frankly the main reasons I did so had nothing to do with money. I find it cool to plant a seed or small plant and then just water it occasionally and then be able to eat. Plus it is great to just go grab some fresh food and eat it. It tastes great and is healthy.

The increasing price of food it makes it more attractive. I plant a few tomato plants and some pepper and cucumber plants. And then some pea and beans from seed (and I did celery this year – though I didn’t realize I was suppose to start them inside 10 weeks early so we will see what happens). I think my total cost was under $30. I would guess all the water I use will be under $5. From that I will get 10+ weeks many tomatoes and green peppers, sweet peppers, hot peppers. The cucumbers and and peas don’t seem to produce as long (if I remember right from last year). I am trying to plant some peas from seeds every couple of weeks and see if that works to give me peas for a longer period this year.

I also have a bunch of berries. I have wineberries that just grew themselves (which started as 1 plant 3 years ago and now covers maybe 20 square feet) which are the best thing of all from my garden, frankly (I have never been able to buy any berries nearly as good). And I bought a small blackberry plant 2 years ago which has grown to be quite productive. Last year I had birds eating so many berries I hardly got any. The previous 2 years I could get more than I could eat for several weeks and enough to eat for maybe 4 more weeks total. Any advice on how to keep birds away?

Even while there are some financial benefits I really think the good healthy food and fun is more important.

Related: Backyard Wildlife: Raptor – Food Price Inflation is Quite High – Backyard Wildlife: Fox – Backyard Wildlife: Turtle

This post is included in the Carnival of Personal Finance #157: Third Anniversary Edition

June 15th, 2008 by John Hunter | 6 Comments | Tags: Personal finance, Tips

Telephone Savings

Update: I would not even consider using Vonage. Any company that takes you money using there online site and then refuses to cancel your service without you call them is exactly like the traditional phone companies they try in ads to say they are different than. Then you call and then force your through a ridicules voice mail tree and then they tell you you have to call back between 9-5 on weekdays to have the privilege of not having them take your money. Completely unacceptable behavior. You can get VOIP phone service without a monthly free now via Ooma by purchasing a device to plug your broadband internet connection into (I got mine for $203 via Amazon).

old post:
Cutting expenses is a great way to free up money to add to savings.

A couple years ago I switched to Vonage for my phone service. They provide phone service through my DSL high speed internet line. I play just $18/mo for local and long distance calls (this is for 500 minutes or less – for $29/mo you can get unlimited calling in North America and Europe). I still use my same phone (I just plug my regular phone into a modem they provided). You do lose the ability to make phone calls when the internet is down which happens if the power goes off – people can still leave you voicemail). I have been very happy and get free voice mail and free caller ID.

More recently I picked up a prepaid phone from Virgin. I pay only for the time I use (no monthly charges) – 25 cents a minute for the first 10 minutes any day and 10 cents a minute thereafter. There are no fees for calling from out of your service area and you have a regular cell phone number. They require I add a minimum of $15 every 3 months to the account but if I don’t use that much the balance just keep growing. This is ideal for anyone that doesn’t spend much time on cell phones. Now some people are very attached to their cell phone. Then this isn’t a good way to save money but for those that don’t feel the need to to stay in touch at all times this is a good option to stay connected when you want without having to pay high monthly fees.

Together I save at least $35/mo. (over $400 a year) and loose nothing I value. I would have to earn an extra $700, or so, to have the same impact (I have to pay taxes on additional earning).

November 18th, 2006 by John Hunter | 2 Comments | Tags: Financial Literacy, Tips
« Previous Page
Next Posts »

Comments

Copyright © Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog

    Personal Finance

    • Credit Card Tips
    • IRAs
    • Investment Risks
    • Loan Terms
    • Saving for Retirement
  • Archives

      All Posts
    • March 2021
    • January 2021
    • August 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • May 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • August 2018
    • May 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • June 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • October 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • June 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
    • February 2010
    • January 2010
    • December 2009
    • November 2009
    • October 2009
    • September 2009
    • August 2009
    • July 2009
    • June 2009
    • May 2009
    • April 2009
    • March 2009
    • February 2009
    • January 2009
    • December 2008
    • November 2008
    • October 2008
    • September 2008
    • August 2008
    • July 2008
    • June 2008
    • May 2008
    • April 2008
    • March 2008
    • February 2008
    • January 2008
    • December 2007
    • November 2007
    • October 2007
    • September 2007
    • August 2007
    • July 2007
    • June 2007
    • May 2007
    • April 2007
    • March 2007
    • February 2007
    • January 2007
    • December 2006
    • November 2006
    • October 2006
    • April 2006
    • March 2006
    • January 2006
    • December 2005
    • October 2005
    • July 2005
    • May 2005
    • April 2005
    • April 2004