interest rates
Popular posts in interest rates
Posted 7 weeks 4 days ago by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
There's a certain class of ways to get free money or free stuff simply by paying attention, keeping track, and being careful. I don't do these things. It's not because they don't work; it's not even because the risk-adjusted earnings don't pay for the time spent. It's because time--and especially time spent paying attention--is very precious.
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Posted 18 weeks 2 days ago by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
Since 1998, the US Treasury has had a pretty good deal for small savers who were worried about inflation--the Series I Savings Bond. The interest it paid was based on inflation plus an additional return that was set by the Treasury and fixed for the life of the bond. On May 1st the Treasury announced the value of that fixed return for the next six months: Zero.
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Posted 21 weeks 1 day ago by Philip Brewer
Investment
When investing in things that pay an interest rate--things like CDs and bonds--it's tempting to try to get the maximum interest rate, and then to try to lock up that rate for as long as possible. There's an alternate strategy that provides good, stable returns with a lot less stress and a lot less need for predicting the future: Laddering.
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Posted 36 weeks 6 days ago by Nora Dunn
Credit Cards
Annual fees, grace periods, balance transfer options…it's a wonderful world of credit card jargon out there, and depending on your needs and planned uses for credit cards, it pays to look at your options. Following are the various ways in which credit card companies can get some money out of you and how you can avoid it.
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Posted 1 year 3 weeks ago by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
In response to the recent
credit squeeze, the Federal Reserve did something unusual: they
cut the discount rate without cutting the federal funds rate.
The federal funds rate is the rate at which banks lend to one another. The discount rate is the rate at which the Fed itself will lend money to banks. For the past few years, the Fed has closely coordinated changes in these rates, so to change one without changing the other is a departure.
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Dear Capital One,
I think we need to have a talk.
My beef with you has been documented here. Readers know that I tried, many a time, to get lower interest rates from you so I could pay down my debt faster. I have a good income. I have good credit. I had been using your credit card for a long time - you owed me that.
Continue reading "Dear Capital One"
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What would you do if you were about to lose your home? What would you be willing to do to keep it? Is it even possible to keep it once you've missed a few payments?
Continue reading "How to Avoid Foreclosure"
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As a complement to Andrea’s article, here’s something else to make you sleep well at night. The average American has around 8 credit cards and is carrying roughly $9000 in credit card debt. If that’s not bad enough, the credit card companies are involved in what can only be described as a conspiracy to keep Americans in debt, permanently.
Continue reading "The Dirty Secrets of Credit Cards"
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Credit card companies are all kinds of evil. I know it, you know it. Now Congress knows it. Credit card companies do all kinds of nasty things (see below!) to take your hard-earned cash, so it's kind of nice to know that our government wants to do something about it.
Continue reading "Credit Card Companies Still Evil; Congress Surprised"
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