Los Angeles-based Weintraub & Selth launched an interactive tool to help you estimate if you can afford to live in the desired city after college using the average starting salary for your selected major, average tuition, student loan costs, and the average living expenses for your desired city. The cost of living estimator is a rough guide to let parents and and students thinking about the cost of college that could help avoiding bankruptcy after college. (marketwatch.com)
Personal Finance
Take control of your personal finance to be wealthier and happier in life.
Finances Are Preventing Almost Half of Non-Homeowners from Buying Homes
As homeownership rate drops to 63.4%, lowest since 1967, Bankrate reports that almost half of non-homeowners say their financial situation stands in their way of purchasing a home. The reasons are that 29% of respondents say they can’t afford a down payment and 16% of respondents say that their credit isn’t good enough to qualify for a mortgage. “Hispanics were the ethnic group most likely to report that their credit is holding them back from homeownership, while the most-cited reason among blacks and whites was they just don’t want to own a home yet.” (bankrate.com)
Politics and Investing Don’t Mix
Mike Piper, a personal finance blogger at Oblivious Investor, warns investors about “the exploitation of a person’s political views in order to instill fear and, ultimately, sell undesirable financial products. The pitch goes something like this: [Political event X] just happened or is likely to happen. As a result, the economy will take a nosedive. You should buy my product to protect yourself.” The technique is so popular that no matter if you are Democrat or Republican, it can be used to trick you to buy the financial products such as gold, annuity, active funds or market-timing newsletter. (obliviousinvestor.com)
7 Sentences Successful People Never Say
After studying more than a thousand millionaires over three decades, Steve Siebold, author of “How Rich People Think,” find out that successful people never say these 7 sentences:
- “I hate my job”
- “That’s not fair”
- “That’s not how it’s done here”
- “That’s not my job”
- “That’s impossible”
- “I could have”
- “I have no choice”
10 Ways to Achieve Marital and Financial Bliss
Stephen T. Diltz, senior financial advisor, said: “Financial issues consistently are among the top reasons why marriages fail; complex emotions are tied to money. Whatever a couple’s biases, hopes and expectations are about money, they should commit to the responsibility of open and regular dialogue at the time they combine their finances.” US News & World Report offers 10 tips from financial experts to achieve marital and financial bliss. Newlyweds should get fresh by openning new accounts. Couple should also start joint account to make saving and spending more transparent. If you’re re-married with childred, you need to plan for separate assets. And prenup can be a good thing. (usnews.com)
Why Buying Low Cost Index Funds Is Always Recommended
The folks at Money Ning always recommend individual investor to buy low cost index funds. Here’s their view: “Low cost index funds on the other hand are much less volatile. No one will become rich overnight, but it is a much more dependable way to investing in equities. It gives us comfort that our portfolio wouldn’t get crushed if something horrible happens to any particular company (e.g. Enron), and will help us better see the long term benefits of investing in the stock market.” (moneyning.com)
Ways to Make Money From Valentine’s Day
American spends almost $19 billion per year for Valentine’s Day. For savvy entrepreneurs, you can make extra money during this special occasion. Wisebread shows you 13 ways to make money. Some tips include “create handmade Valentine’s cards, deliver stuff, play chef for a couple’s romantic dinner, babysit or pet sit, unload unwanted jewelry, promote your party-planning skills and host a singles party for all your lonely friends.” (wisebread.com)
3 Financial Lessons to Teach Your Children
While the United States is an economic superpower, we’re only ranked around the middle of developed countries when it comes to financial literacy for young people. Schools are not doing a good job educating our children about personal finance. Instead, parents must teach their children the basic financial knowledge to succeed in life. Here are three financial lessons from the Motley Fool for you to teach your children how to become financially literate: “How to open a bank account and balance a checkbook, how to wisely and effectively manage credit, and how to use compounding to your advantage.” (fool.com)
Guide to Borrowing Money from Peer-to-Peer Lending
Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is getting popular as you probably heard about Prosper and Lending Club. Here’s a five-minute guide to borrowing money from P2P. “Online-only P2P platforms take money from savers and loan it out to carefully vetted borrowers including ordinary consumers, small businesses and even landlords. By cutting out the middleman such as banks and building societies, they should give savers and borrowers a better rate. P2P platforms still take their cut, but this is lower because they do not have to support large branch networks and thousands of staff.” Once you are into P2P, you need to be aware that it is riskier than deposit the money in the bank as it’s not back by FDIC. (express.co.uk)
Vanguard, a Champion of Low Fees, Faces Tax Challenge
David Danon, a former Vanguard tax lawyer, says in whistle-blower claim that Vanguard could owe billions of dollars in taxes on uncollected revenue. The lawsuit is just crazy as millions of shareholders could end up paying somewhat higher fees if Mr. Danon wins in court against Vanguard. Since Vanguard’s funds are owned by its shareholders, Vanguard’s overall fees are the lowest in the industry. While not taking in more profits are good for investors, Vanguard runs into a peculiar tax challenge. The New York Times shows Mr. Danon’s reason: “Because the Vanguard Group was set up as a C corporation, and not a partnership, it has potential tax liabilities, even if it does not actually earn a profit. And because it is owned by its mutual funds, for tax purposes, it is required to account for the profits that it could have earned if it had charged the higher fees that the marketplace would have borne.” While Mr. Danon is waiting for a big pay day to collect up to 30% Vanguard’s penalty, a New York judge dismissed Mr. Danon’s suit in November. For now there’s no reason for Vanguard shareholders to transfer their money to another company. (nytimes.com)
Developing a Super Bowl-Like Game Plan for Your Money
Joni Lindquist wrote for Financial Planning Association of Greater Kansas City: “It occurred to me that building a Super Bowl team has some similarities to building your own personal financial plan. The obvious one is that both require discipline to be successful. A great football team needs the discipline to follow the game plan, with individuals executing their assigned task on every play. It takes physical discipline to get in shape to play the game at the highest level. When it comes to personal financial planning, it also takes discipline to stick to your plan and dedication to advance your career and increase your income.” Here are the suggestions: Clarifying and setting goals, building a plan, and taking action. (kansascity.com)
29 Easy Ways to Build Emergency Fund
Having an emergency fund means having one less thing to worry about when the unexpected happens. Here are 29 ways to build your emergency fund out of thin air from Get Rich Slowly. These stealth savings can help you build up the needed fund for rainy days. For instance, to build up the emergency fund you should bank all your rewards, bonus and raise. Make saving a challenge and drop bad habits such as smoking or drinking. (getrichslowly.org)
Why Simplicity Is a Hard Sell for Investors
Canadian Couch Potato recently overhauled his portfolio to switch to a three-fund portfolio, but he got emails from his unconvinced readers. To explain why simple is still a hard sell, Canadian Couch Potato cited some insights from Ben Carlson’s book, A Wealth of Common Sense. Carlson observed that, “I’ve spent my entire career working in portfolio management. This experience has taught me that less is always more when making investment decisions. Simplicity trumps complexity.” Carlson also explained that “trying harder does not mean doing better in the financial markets. In fact, trying harder is probably one of the easiest ways to achieve below average performance.”
The Sad Financial Future For Many NFL Players
The Super Bowl, one of the world’s most-watched sporting events, is coming this weekend and many players will see financial bonuses and bigger contracts. However, behind the scene there’s the sad financial future that awaits many NFL players, as more than 15% of the players declared bankruptcy post-NFL retirement. The Wall Street Journal has three advices for anyone who earns a lot of money in a very lucrative short-lived career: Becoming financially literate, learning to manage money, and choosing a pay structure wisely. (wsj.com)
Hobbies You Can Start for Free
On average, Americans spend 2.8 hours in front of the television each day. Instead of wasting time on the couch watching television, you can try these 10 hobbies for free, recommended by Wise Bread. These cool and fun hobbies are cooking, nature identification, weather reporting, drawing, photography, whittling, video blogging, dancing, couponing and meditating. (wisebread.com)
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