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Posted
Sep 17 2008, 10:57 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Ron Haynes at The Wisdom Journal is almost ready to bet the farm that you aren't doing everything you could to better manage your money. Doing our best to make every penny count could provide a greater sense of security as we collectively ride an economic roller coaster. So we took him up on the challenge and reviewed his "50 frugal things you aren't doing." He's right. We're not doing all we can.
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Posted
Sep 08 2008, 03:14 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
No matter how much personal-finance bloggers write about credit cards, myths about them persist. Kristin at Twenties Money Magazine sets the record straight with "TMM top 20 dumb credit card rumors." Here's No. 18, which we think gets a lot of traction, even though it's absolutely untrue: "Cash advance is the same as using an ATM." In fact, credit card cash advances come with a hefty price tag.
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Posted
Aug 26 2008, 10:49 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
To borrow a phrase from Dave Ramsey, bad financial behavior has become acceptable and "normal." Are you engaging in all-too-common practices that can lead to ruin? "Mr. ToughMoneyLove" of the deliciously snarky Tough Money Love blog describes 10 common financial practices that really should be avoided. For example: "You are comfortable being upside down." Somehow, owing more on your house, car, etc., than they're worth has became routine, Mr. ToughMoneyLove laments.
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Posted
Aug 11 2008, 01:27 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Guess what country this paragraph from a New York Times story describes: Outstanding card debt here ballooned to nearly $18 billion last year, six times the level five years earlier. Default rates spiked and consumer groups protested sky-high interest charges. It's Turkey, where less than a generation ago consumer debt was almost unheard of and came with a heavy burden of shame.
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Posted
Aug 07 2008, 06:17 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Chances are Mom and Dad don't have what it takes to spring for the entire cost of your college education. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll finish school with a mountain of debt. Plenty of information can be found online about limiting your spending and your debt while pursuing a higher education. Luckily, "Broke Grad Student" volunteered to be a human filter and come up with the good stuff.
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Posted
Aug 05 2008, 10:51 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
People are a bit more likely to talk about secret subjects like salaries and their love lives with someone they've just met than to discuss how much they owe on their credit cards. In fact, religion and politics are much more palatable topics among strangers than any of those three, according to a poll done for CreditCards.com.
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Posted
Jul 31 2008, 09:59 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you're paying big bucks to credit-repair companies to piggyback on other people's good credit and artificially increase your score, the credit-score police will no longer be fooled.
So says Fair Isaac Corp., the company that devised the widely used FICO credit score. Fair Isaac has figured out a way to detect when people are abusing the privilege of authorized-user status on other people's credit cards. "Fortunately, we were able to come up with technology that makes it much harder to game the system," Fair Isaac chief operations officer Mike Campbell told CreditCards.com.
This is good news for consumers.
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Posted
Jul 19 2008, 11:24 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
"Broke Grad Student" would like to have a big honking wad of cash as much as the next guy. But that's a dream because of his big honking student loan debt. In a post called "6 reasons why I hate cash," he explains why he otherwise has little use for bills and coins. For instance, if you lost that big wad of cash, it would be gone. Poof. "You can't call an 800 number and have them cancel your $20 bills," he says in this humorous post at Broke Grad Student.
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Posted
Jul 16 2008, 02:27 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Would you rather eliminate your debt with a snowball, or smack it down with an avalanche? "Flexo" at Consumerism Commentary says, "By choosing the debt avalanche method, you will pay off your total debt faster, you will pay less interest, and you are mathematically efficient." We're all for being mathematically efficient.
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Posted
Jul 11 2008, 03:45 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you thought credit card companies offer rewards and cash back because they want to give you things, think again. Several bloggers were intrigued by a study in the July issue of Consumer Reports about how rewards programs work -- in favor of the companies. "Consumer Reports found that people who have rewards cards often end up spending more money than those with a regular card, and on top of that, they don't always reap the benefits of having the card," wrote Peter at Bible Money Matters.
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