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Posted
Sep 27 2007, 11:27 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. My first credit card was an AT&T Universal card that I received after filling out an application outside of Doherty Hall on the campus of the esteemed Carnegie Mellon University. I applied because the guy was giving away T-shirts with funny slogans, and I thought it was a great way to get a funny T-shirt, right? Luckily for me, the whole setup was 100 percent legitimate, since it’s now been eight years and my identity wasn’t stolen. But how many of those similarly set up operations aren’t legitimate? It’s a fantastic way to capture a ton of information in a short period of time from unsuspecting victims who likely aren’t even aware that identity theft happens. Let’s say that the person accepting applications is entirely legitimate and he personally won’t run off with your information. What’s to say someone doesn’t mug him on his way home or break into his car and steal all that information? If you think of all the recent data breaches involving theft of credit card numbers, the thieves didn’t break into the store or credit card company databases, they broke into the processors’ databases.
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Posted
Oct 03 2007, 04:00 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
That great American pastime, Monopoly , has likely taught you some lousy financial lessons (and we're not talking about the wisdom of building a hotel on Boardwalk.) Partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity says the No. 1 Monopoly lesson it's best to unlearn is: Expensive is better. Among the other lessons Monopoly won't teach you: Money won't solve all of your problems, and bankruptcy isn't an endgame.
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Posted
Oct 04 2007, 10:20 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blo g Blueprint for Financial Prosperity . The “ latte factor ” was a term coined by David Bach to represent the idea that the key to financial prosperity is to cut out the little things in life you're paying other people for, and spend that money on yourself and your future. Mathematically, it involves taking a $5 cup of coffee each day, or other discretionary spending you'd like to substitute in its place, and calculating how much that $5 would be worth in 40 years if you had invested it. It's not a particularly novel idea because everyone can appreciate that saving $5 each day and then compounding that at 11 percent each year for 40 years will result in a huge number. But its value is that it challenges you to examine the motivations behind your spending and how you could change those for the better. It all adds up When you make a large capital purchase, like a house, a car, or even a plasma television, you spend quite a bit of time researching in order to
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Posted
Oct 05 2007, 10:42 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Lots of experts are openly worrying about a slowdown in the U.S. economy . How would a recession affect you and your pocketbook? Blueprint for Financial Prosperity says most people probably wouldn't suffer. But just in case a recession causes you to become frugal-not-by-choice, AKA unemployed , now's the time to pump up your emergency fund. Blogger Young and Broke tells you how.
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Posted
Oct 09 2007, 06:27 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity . In layman's terms, the interest rate dictated by the Fed impacts the stock market because it affects the rate on loans businesses can get. When the interest rate goes up, loan rates go up and businesses have to pay more on their loans and have less to put back into the business. The interest rate also affects consumers because the rates on their loans are going to go up and thus their ability to spend money is going to go down. If consumers are spending less, businesses are making less -- yet another hit to future growth potential. Since the stock market is supposed to track the business, rate hikes affect growth projections and thus the price of stock. The price of a stock is based on those projections, so increased costs means potentially decreased future growth, and so the price goes down. A rate hike means stocks weaken; rate drop means stocks strengthen. That's the layman's version and that's basically like explaining
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Posted
Oct 10 2007, 07:17 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity played some Texas Hold 'Em in college, so he's no stranger to the game. While watching the World Series of Poker on TV, he recognized similarities between managing the game and his own financial life . For instance, there's "stack management"-- picking the right time to put your money in the pot. Lessons 1 and 3: Have patience, and learn from your mistakes. Lesson 7? "It's a grind." Whether it's the poker table or whatever you do to earn a living, the grind can be OK. "Lots of people love the grind," Jim observes, "because it is enough to give you a very fulfilling life."
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Posted
Oct 16 2007, 08:38 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity . It's always possible to get an influenza vaccination unless the vaccine is in short supply, but it's another matter to find a free flu shot. If you're elderly or in another at-risk group, you stand the best chance of getting a free shot. If you're healthy and can afford spending $20, I recommend you leave the freebies for those less fortunate and pay for your shot. Where can you find a free flu shot? Your employer . Many companies offer flu shots to employees because it makes business sense. Ask your company's medical services department or human resources department if flu shots are provided. If they aren't, recommend that your company investigate the idea. Explain how offering a $20 shot for free is better than having to put up with lost productivity when people take sick days. In my short working life, the two companies I've worked for both offered a flu shot. Since everyone in the company generally gets the shot
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Posted
Oct 23 2007, 06:53 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity . You want to make a big-ticket purchase, you've just been offered 12-month, same-as-cash financing, and you're not sure if you should accept it. Take a breather and analyze the offer. How good a deal this is depends on what your plans are for the next 18 months. Do you plan to buy a home in the next 18 months? If the answer is no, take the offer. If the answer is yes, here's some downstream-effect math for you: What you save/earn. By taking the offer, you can potentially earn a little under 5% on the value of the purchase by putting the purchase price into a savings account. Let's say you're buying a $2,000 television. By putting the money into a high-yield online savings account, you will get about $100 in interest before taxes. (The $2,000 will slowly diminish as you make minimum payments, so $100 is the maximum.) A $10,000 home-renovation job with 0% financing is an interest win of $375. You also have to consider the
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Posted
Oct 30 2007, 07:43 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity . One thing I don't like about typical gas-saving posts is that they give great tips you'll never use. They're great tips you will absolutely, without a doubt, 100%, take-no-prisoners ignore until you're blue in the face. You'll ignore them because you don't like the tips. Here are four tips you'll ignore, and why you (and I) ignore them. Then I'll follow with some tips I think you won't ignore, because they're easy. Drive 55 mph. This tip is by far the one you'll ignore the most because we all like to get where we're going as quickly as possible. In fact, despite studies showing an increase in fuel efficiency at 55 mph, the bottom line is that when the feds adopted that speed limit because of the 1973 oil crisis, gasoline consumption dropped only 1% . You are most likely to ignore this rule because the speed limit on most highways is now 65 mph, and many drivers exceed that. Driving at 55 mph puts you at risk as aggressive
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Posted
Nov 01 2007, 11:31 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This may be a day late, but not a dollar short. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity offers a great way not to have lots of unwanted candy the day after Halloween . When BFP was a child, he and his sister would stop home occasionally during their trick-or-treat rounds and drop the candy they didn't want into a giveaway bowl. This tip, called candy recycling, is so good we're sure you'll remember it next year. Parents spend less on candy, children keep only the treats they want, and the rest is distributed to the other kids in the neighborhood.
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