Money Tips Network
Evaluating the best banks in America
Banking in America is unique. No other country has as many banks, and types of banks, as the United States. Most countries in Europe have about four or five big banks… and that’s it. When there are so few competitors, they all tend to be alike, and not all that consumer-friendly.
The plethora of banks in America is good news, but the news is not all good. How do you know which banks, among the plethora lining your Main Street, are worthy of your business? CNNMoney (there is no magazine anymore) ranks banks in America annually, and they released their 2013 rankings last month.
The diversity of banks in America makes it almost impossible to pick a “best in show” kind of overall winner. CNNMoney therefore breaks the surveyed banks into several categories. Here’s a quick summary of this year’s top rankings:
Credit card protection from Chase that I didn’t know that I had
Our primary credit card was compromised. Again.
We noticed a spurious $9.84 charge when looking over our Chase Sapphire statement. A quick visit to the website and a bit of Googling revealed the bad news.
So we called up Chase, reported the transaction, and they credited it back to us, no questions asked (they’re good like that). They canceled our current card, and rushed us a new one for free, which came promptly (they’re good like that, too).
Following that, we looked over our recurring charges on that card, and saw only one that was due to be posted soon. A couple of days later, when my wife went to the business to change the credit card number on file, and to pay if needed. she was informed that the charge had bee posted that morning, and that the system was reporting that our account was paid up. So, she left without paying anything.
5 Free grocery apps that save you time and money
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This is why you’re broke, going out to eat edition
Going out to eat is great for a lot of reasons: no dishes, new culinary experiences, time to relax and share a meal with friends or my significant other, annoying the Internet by posting pictures of my food. But those benefits come at a price. Going back to the days when I used to blow [...]
This is why you’re broke, going out to eat edition from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.
This blog was posted by Claes Bell
Home remodeling — when you can’t (or don’t want to) DIY
This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson.
When my husband and I walked into our last home for the first time, we felt like we were walking right into the ’70s. With disco-era fixtures and old smelly carpet, the four bedroom colonial was quite the sight. Oh, and let’s not forget the orange laminate flooring that graced the kitchen and bathrooms. Except for the master bathroom, of course. It had shag carpet.
Failing to plan is planning to fail
It’s that time again, time for the inevitable turn-of-the-year vows to eat smarter, exercise more and be nicer to friends and family. One in a hundred may actually keep those commitments and become healthier, better people in the process.
Others may focus on becoming financially healthier, promising themselves they will look harder for the best credit cards, or the best savings accounts available to them.
But here’s one line item not enough folks are including on their list of resolutions: making a long-term financial plan. According to a recent study, 84 percent of respondents indicated they had no intention of including financial planning in their 2014 resolutions. That’s a woeful 16 percent, and it looks even more pitiful next to the one-third of respondents in the survey’s first year, 2009. If they’re not crafting plans in the dozen months ahead, why not?
Should You Open an IRA With Your Bank? Ally Bank Offering $250 Bonus
It’s easy for me to look back in time and analyze the faults of my twenty-two year-old self. If only I had started saving and investing sooner, I’d be in a better financial situation. My younger self would assume I had forgotten what it was like for me during that time period, when I had barely enough money to make rent, I was still looking for the perfect job, and I managed to avoid many bills for at least a short period of time before borrowing more money from somewhere.
Podcast 171: Kimberly Palmer, The Economy of You
I’m a reluctant entrepreneur, but I’ve learned to be less self-conscious about the fact that this is the designation society has given to me as someone who started his own business. While many people after, but also before, the recession have started side businesses to improve their financial security, for me, a hobby turned into a profitable and enjoyable way to spend my time.
But entrepreneur was always a dirty word to me, even after I came to the realization that I was, in fact, an entrepreneur. The word hustle is now associated with side businesses, but a hustle is a con, a scam. These words have always had the connotation of being less than forthright in business, using deceptive practices to get a customer or mark to part with his or her hard-earned money.
How I got $132 worth of clothes for free
A clothing swap allows you to freshen up your wardrobe without a pricey shopping spree. It’s totally unfrugal, but sometimes buying new clothes and shoes and accessories just feels good. But know what doesn’t feel so good? A busted budget. Good news is, there are ways to satisfy your inner shopaholic without going broke. One [...]
How I got $132 worth of clothes for free from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.
This blog was posted by Kristin Wong
Shirt tales: How to find clothes for your kids
This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.
When we doubled our family size, we more than doubled the amount of laundry. And let’s not even talk about the increases in stains and holes. Or the back-to-back phone calls from my son’s principal: “Hey, Mrs. Aberle, your son was playing in the snow without snow pants. He is soaked. Can you bring in a dry pair of pants for him?” And the next day: “The button on his pants fell off and he needs another pair.”
Because our kids are so hard on clothing, every time I evaluate my kids’ closets, I’m glad we haven’t spent lots of money to clothe them. Unfortunately, the items I did spend more money on were the items they lost, like the stocking hat I bought from L.L. Bean (stupid, stupid, Lisa!) that disappeared. Or they didn’t like the clothes and wouldn’t wear them.
How to get the best deal on an engagement ring
We are right in the middle of the engagement season. According to the wedding planning website theknot.com, 39 percent of weddings begin with a proposal between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day. Everyone wants to buy the perfect ring. Being one of the most expensive purchases we make in our life, it is important to plan ahead and understand the process. It will make both the recipient and your wallet happy.
TALK FINANCES
Before you head out ring shopping, it is important to sit with your loved one and talk about finances if you have not done so already. Not about the ring, but in general. Do you and your significant other have similar goals when it comes to finances? Do you have personality clashes? Do you know what her expectations are when it comes to big purchases?
PLAN YOUR PURCHASE
Use Zinio and your library card to read digital magazines for free
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Reader Story: My grandmother’s home remedies
This reader story come from SB, a regular reader and commenter on GRS. SB writes about personal finance and personal development topics at One Cent at a Time.
Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks with all levels of financial maturity and income. Want to submit your own reader story? Here’s how.
This is my second guest post at this blog. I am grateful to J.D. and his team’s humble gesture in allowing me to do it. I hope to provide the same value regular writers of this blog provide to you.
5 signs your credit card sucks
When it comes to choosing the right credit card, you’ve got plenty of options. A good card can give you a long promotional period, a great interest rate and reward you with some nice benefits. On the other hand, a bad card at best takes up undeserved space in your wallet, like so many stripes of [...]
5 signs your credit card sucks from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.
This blog was posted by John Parker
Ask the Readers: Big decisions for 20-somethings
This question comes from a regular Get Rich Slowly reader who needs some help making some life-changing decisions. She’s reaching out to the GRS readers for some advice.
Between the two of us, my then-boyfriend and I had a moderate amount of savings. We had both paid off all of our debt – cars, student loans and all credit cards. We were proud of ourselves and felt ahead of other 26-year-olds we knew.
About 25 percent of his savings was in a retirement account and 75 percent in cash. And mine was the opposite, about 75 percent in retirement accounts and 25 percent in cash. When we moved in together we put together a budget with YNAB (which I love and have been using for three years now) and determined how much we could start saving moving forward, now that we had eliminated dual expenses like rent and utilities and significantly decreased things like gas because we wouldn’t be driving 240 miles round trip to see each other every weekend.
Saving money with my feet: The joys of a walkable neighborhood
Note: This article is from J.D. Roth, who founded Get Rich Slowly in 2006. J.D.’s non-financial writing can be found at More Than Money, where he recently wrote about the regrets of the dying.
On Saturday, I bumped into Rhonda at the local natural food market. Rhonda is one of Kris’s co-workers and friends. I haven’t seen her much since the divorce, although we live only a mile-and-a-half apart. For 20 minutes, she and I stood in the freezer aisle and chatted about life and the neighborhood.
“Do you know any other places to shop for groceries?” I asked. “We like this store, but it’s pretty expensive. I know there’s another market near your house, but its prices don’t seem any better and the food quality is worse.” (This is actually the subject of an already-written but yet-to-be published post I’ve produced for GRS.)
Stop Over-Thinking Your Money
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Credit unions vs. banks: Things to consider
This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong.
One of my money resolutions for 2014 is to switch banks. I’ve been a long-time customer of a big bank that, in recent years, has stood out among headlines that reveal sneaky and unethical business practices. That’s not the only reason I’m switching, but it does help me want to change.
2014: Another good year?
Twenty-thirteen is the year the Haves and the Have Nots came to prominence, dressed up as a new TV series which opened on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). The title of the show alludes, of course, to the notion that there is a distinction between those with high incomes and/or a high net worth, and, well, the rest of us.
The Haves are also known as “the 1 percent,” and the Have Nots, in the wonderful math of rhetoric, “the 47 percent.” The unnamed mass in the middle, well, nobody talks about them. There may be a good reason: The American middle class appears to be following the path of the dodo. America is in the midst of a disturbing trend, a growing gulf between the haves and the have nots.
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