A strengthening U.S. dollar may lure many who have been putting off their overseas vacations to dust off their passports and jump on a plane or cruise ship this spring. But, you still might find that your dollars still don’t go as far as they once did, so it will be important to find every [...]
Continue Reading →One question that comes up during tax time is this: Do I have to report that income? In most cases, the answer is yes. For most types of income, you are required to report what you make to the IRS. You might even be surprised at what income you are expected to pay taxes on. [...]
Continue Reading →What is a put option and how can it help investors in a bear market? Warren Buffet has made no secret of his successful investing strategy. “Buy into fear” he says, “Buy when everyone else is selling”. For most average investors, that may be much easier said than done. Perhaps if we all had a [...]
Continue Reading →With the mortgage crisis dominating the headlines over the last few years, another potentially cataclysmic debt crisis has largely escaped notice, until now. The student debt crisis. Just last year, the outstanding student loan debt reached the $1 trillion level, surpassing the country’s out-of-control credit card debt. Of that amount, nearly 80% has been amassed [...]
Continue Reading →Comparing the top gas credit cards: In recent weeks, driving by the corner gas station each day, you get the helpless feeling of money being drained from your wallet even without stopping for a fill-up. The numbers on the price signs seem to be spinning like a slot machine in Las Vegas, but there are [...]
Continue Reading →With more than 28,000,000 views on YouTube, the video of Tommy Jordan plugging his daughter’s laptop with 9 rounds of hollow-point bullets may very well be the seminal event that shakes parents out of their stupor, and saves future generations from a life of delusional entitlement. To be sure, parents are divided over the appropriateness [...]
Continue Reading →People with fair credit have just been elevated to a status once reserved only for those with good to excellent credit – Rewards Worthy! Heretofore, credit cards with cash back rewards have rarely been offered to credit newcomers or rebuilders. And, while they may have felt somewhat privileged for just having credit extended to them, [...]
Continue Reading →Directbanc.com showcases the topic of investing in our “Asking the Experts” interview series. We asked Kyle, the personal finance blogger of AmateurAssetAllocator.com, to share his insights on investing in today’s economy. Kyle’s philosphy : “My aim is to present personal finance, investing, and economic issues simply enough for beginners to easily understand but with enough substance [...]
Continue Reading →Inflation: The Ultimate Confidence Game The current dilapidated state of the economy has been decades in the making, and the establishment has grown alarmingly desperate and cynical in its efforts to stem the decline of public confidence; because, for all of them, the public’s perception of the country’s economic health is vital to their own [...]
Continue Reading →The term “Strategic Wealth Management” originated from the full-service brokerage firms, in part, as a way to elevate their status in the eyes of high net worth investors who had viewed them primarily as stockbrokers. It was also thought to more aptly describe the full range of investment services the brokerage firms began offering in [...]
Continue Reading →We’ve covered the issue of debt/credit protection plans offered by credit card issuers on several occasions, essentially exposing them as a sham and a shameful exploitation of fear-stricken consumers who are willing to pay a premium to protect their credit in times of hardship. Now, the new consumer watchdog agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is [...]
Continue Reading →Directbanc.com shines the spotlight on women and finance in our third installment of the “Asking the Experts” series. We feature the esteemed personal finance blogger Jenny Kerr, of thejennypincher.com Jenny comes to us with a wealth of knowledge in the areas of personal finance, including the lending and insurance industries. She developed and taught a budgeting [...]
Continue Reading →If you are one of the millions of people who are trying to climb their way out of a financial hole with hopes of rebuilding their credit and “doing it right” this time, chances are you have received dozens of “pre-qualified” or even “pre-approved” credit card offers. While they may appear as a potential step [...]
Continue Reading →ETFs, (exchange traded fund) and indexed mutual funds are emerging as the investment of choice for investors who are discovering the virtues of passive investing. Not surprisingly, they have both seen an explosion of growth and are especially popular choices for retirement plans and investors with a long time horizon. With all of the attention they [...]
Continue Reading →Directbanc.com Goes In Depth with the Personal Finance Experts and their Personal Finance Blogs. In our second installment, Directbanc.com continues our “Asking the Experts” series of interviews with the best Personal Finance Experts from around the web. If you missed the first one with Carrie Smith, of Careful Cents Blog, be sure to read it here. [...]
Continue Reading →Many people who now live financially responsible lives, have had their past come back to haunt them. After years of paying bills on time, building up their credit scores, and qualifying for mortgages, they might receive a call one day from a collections agency informing them of an outstanding debt – from 10 years ago! [...]
Continue Reading →I’m not about to make any stock market predictions for the New Year, but one thing I can say with nearly 100% certainty is that there will be more uncertainty. If all we could count on is “more of the same”, we might even find comfort in that. After all, we now know what it [...]
Continue Reading →After a three year lull in the credit card industry, offers are starting to flood consumers’ mailboxes ,and people who have been on the sidelines as far as credit card use are starting to bite on them. For people who got into trouble with past credit card usage, it would be a wise thing to, [...]
Continue Reading →As the wild stock market gyrations continue, investors are reawakening to the performance benchmarks of their mutual funds to see if their fund choices are at least doing better than the market indexes. With most actively managed mutual funds underperforming the current market, investors are, once again, feverishly moving their funds out of stock funds [...]
Continue Reading →Unless you are among the unbanked or underbanked in America, those who by choice or circumstance don’t show up on the banking grid, you have come to realize that it is virtually impossible to get through life without the use of plastic. You need a credit card to make purchases online, to book travel, and [...]
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