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The following is a guest post on behalf of Bullion Vault. Enjoy!
Saving money and being economical is important, as we all know. However, after working hard to rack up some savings, the next step is finding ways to make that hard-earned money work for you!
Do Your Homework
It is important to do your research. There are so many options out there, in terms of banks and savings accounts. Compare, make telephone calls, ask questions! Choose something that will bring you the most interest.
Consider Investing in the Stock Market
If you have a head for the global economy, you could get into the stock market. This requires more effort and involves more risk than a savings account, but it can also be more rewarding. Putting your money in the right place at the right time can really earn you much more than you were expecting!
By diligently keeping yourself informed about current events, and with practice, you will find that it is perhaps easier than it looks. There are books and websites galore that can teach you more about investing intelligently.
Consider Gold as An Investment Option
If stocks and shares are too uncertain for you, and you would prefer something a little more solid in your portfolio, why not consider gold? These days, it is looking like one of the safer choices, since it is highly likely that it will only earn you money in the long run. It is easy to purchase, via your bank or online resources. Buying gold is simple and quite profitable, without the riskiness of stocks and shares.
Conclusions
Consider all your investment options and choose something that fits your lifestyle, and helps you towards your personal finance goals. Finding the right way to make your money grow while you focus on other things will move you closer to financial freedom. Start looking into it today!
How about you all? What are your thoughts about investing in gold as part of your portfolio?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.
- @ Investing in the stock market –
- While a lot of people swear that investing in individual stocks is the way to go and that there are tremendous opportunities, I am still not convinced.
- However, I always keep my ear open for new stock trading methods that seem to take some of the emotional pitfalls out of individual stock investing.
- The most promising stock trading method I have studied to date is Phil’s Town’s Rule Number 1 system. Because I liked the system’s methodology, I performed a 6 month analysis of his system, and ultimately found that it didn’t offer any benefit when compared to merely investing in index mutual funds.
- So, long story short – I don’t promote investing in individual stocks. Instead, I think that individual investors are much better off investing in low cost index mutual funds. This strategy is called passive investing.
- @ Investing in Gold –
- This is actually a pretty difficult question/issue. And, ultimately, I have not yet decided whether or not gold needs to have a place in your portfolio.
- Because of this, I’ve put this topic on my list of posts to research and write about. Just off the top of my head, if I were to invest in gold, I would most likely try to do it through a low cost mutual fund or ETF.
- How about any one else out there, do you think gold should be in your portfolio? If so, how do you recommend gaining exposure to this asset?
***Photo courtesy of http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=idea
Top 5 Ways to Reduce Car Insurance Costs
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Park on the driveway or in the garage
Have a steering lock
Add an experienced driver to a young person’s insurance
Drive carefully
Reduce your mileage
How about you all? What methods/techniques do you use to save money on car insurance? Do you use any of the ones listed above? How much do you pay on car insurance per year?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.
- @ Parking off of the street in a driveway or garage to lower your car insurance –
- While it definitely makes sense that parking your car off of the street when it is not in use would reduce your risk of getting hit (and possibly having to tap in to your insurance if the other driver isn’t insured), I’m not certain that this will get you a discount in the United States.
- This is due to the fact that if your car is parked and it gets hit by another car/driver, it would be quite rare for the driver of a parked car to be found “at fault.” Furthermore, it is required by law in the US for every driver to have (at a minimum) liability insurance covering the other driver in the event that the wreck is your fault.
- Does anyone have experience with this aspect (I’m not much of an expert when it comes to car insurance)?
- @ Having a steering lock to prevent theft –
- Steering locks used to be VERY popular in the US for a brief period of time. It was almost like they were a “fad” which came and has now faded.
- In fact, it’s quite rare that I see people with a steering lock on their car.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/stignygaard/194225065/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Need to Save Some Money? Take a Look at Your Auto Insurance!
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The following is a guest post. Enjoy!
Many people today are struggling financially; therefore, you might desperately need to find ways to save money. One way that you can save is through your car insurance.
Car insurance is considered by most people to be expensive, putting a financial strain on them. However, individuals sometimes are actually paying too much for their car insurance, as there are ways that you can find cheaper insurance.
Car Insurance Discounts
You should always ask your insurance company if they offer any discounts. There are many companies which provide the following discounts to their customers:
- Safe Driver Discounts: If you follow the law, you could receive a discount of up to 15 percent. Your driving record should be spotless for three to five years to qualify for this sort of discount.
- Senior Citizen Discounts: If you are over 50, you could be eligible for a discount.
- Taking Defensive Driving: If you take a driving safety course, and you can show proof that you took the course, you might qualify for a discount.
- Good Grades Discounts: If you have a child who is old enough to drive, you might be offered a discount for their good grades. If the student has completed a course in driver’s education, you possibly could receive an even lower discount.
- Car Features: If your car has anti-lock brakes, an anti-theft device, or airbags, an insurance company might give you a discount on your car insurance.
- Low-Mileage Discount: If your place of employment is close to your home and you rarely take long trips, you could qualify for a discount based on your mileage.
- Multi-Car Insurance: If you have more than one car insured, you can receive a discount.
Save Money By Raising Your Deductible
If you raise your deductible, you can also save money on insurance. The higher the deductible, the lower your premium will be. However, you want to make sure that you can pay your deductible before you agree to increase it.
Timing of Your Premium Payments Affects Your Rates
If you are able to, you can save money on car insurance by paying the premium in full. Many people pay insurance every month, but most companies give you the option to pay it in one lump sum. The overall amount of money that you pay will be lower if you choose to pay it all at once (or twice a year is a common payment frequency in the United States as well).
Be Sure to Shop Around and Compare Rates
Another great way to save on car insurance is to shop around for the best rates. You might be paying too much because you are trying to be loyal to your agent. However, cheap insurance companies now are very competitive, and you need to search around for reputable agents to get a great deal. Most online companies will provide you with free quotes; therefore, try to get several rates before deciding on car insurance.
Conclusions
There are ways to lower your insurance rates if you can just find the right company to offer you the best deals. You need to try to save money any way that you can, and car insurance is one area in which the savings can really add up.
How about you all? What ways do you use to save money on your car insurance? What discounts have you been successful in finding and/or negotiating? Do you prefer to get your insurance company-direct or through a local agent?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.
- As I’ve mentioned before, because the issue of car insurance affects such a large number of people, it makes for very good discussion in the blog and/or online forum setting. In fact, recently, I wrote an article about how car insurance rates specifically vary based on gender, age, and geographic location. Pretty interesting results!
- Needless to say, I’m glad to continue the debate with this article as well!
- @ Ways to Save Money on Car Insurance
- Be sure to shop around before buying – One of the most important things for me when I start the process of looking for any type of insurance is to make sure to shop around and get a good feel for market prices of insurance premiums from a variety of providers. There’s a great deal of competition out there in the insurance market today, and we as insurance buyers can take advantage of this!
- Purchase multiple insurance policies from the same provider – In addition to the list of discounts detailed above, another one I’ve heard of quite commonly is getting a price break if you purchase multiple types of insurance (e.g. business, home, car, life, etc) from the same carrier.
- As far as the extent of the discount you can receive with this tact remains unknown to me as of right now. However, it is something that might be worth trying! But, just be careful that the insurance premiums of the “add-on” policy from the same provider is in fact a competitive, low price compared to other insurance providers.
- @ Good grades car insurance discounts –
- My parents actually were able to use this technique to get a break on pricing for my car insurance when I was in high school. They’d simply request a copy of my report card to provide proof of my grades to the insurance agent.
- @ Raising your deductible to lower car insurance premiums –
- It’s definitely true that raising your insurance deductible will significantly lower your monthly premiums.
- However, one needs to exercise a good bit of prudent deliberation before raising your deductible. First and foremost, you need to make sure that for whatever deductible you decide upon, you will always carry at least this amount in a cash emergency fund. By having an emergency fund, you ensure that you are able to immediately pay your car insurance deductible and get your insurance policy to kick in.
- Personally, I think a good amount of a deductible for car insurance would be $500-$750 (about the same as for health insurance deductibles). This is significantly lower than my homeowner’s insurance policy deductible of $2500 due to the fact that there is much more risk of me being hit by another car and having to tap in to my car insurance than for my condo burning to the ground.
- @ Question of whether it’s better to “buy local” or direct from a nationwide company – There seems to be an ongoing debate/battle between different groups about whether it is better to “buy local” versus to buy direct from a national or multinational corporation. And, car insurance is no exception to this “war!”
- Personally, while I would probably prefer to buy local (mainly to have someone in my same town to talk to about my policy), when it comes to car insurance, I would not hesitate to buy direct from a big provider like Shelter, State Farm, etc, if it meant saving me a large sum of money.
- When I purchased the insurance for my condo, I compared prices at many insurance providers (both local and national). Ultimately, I took out a policy with a local insurance agency who brokers policies from the national corporation, Erie Insurance. As it turned out, the price for the policy using the agent was no more expensive than buying direct from the company. Go figure!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/insurewish/4112407433/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Which Platform Should You Choose for Online Stock Trading?
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The following is a guest post from Jason Laurents. Enjoy!
Choosing a Platform for Online Trading
Investing in the stock market is by no means an easy task. Even more experienced traders have a difficult time calling the right investments, but that doesn’t mean a novice investor can’t do well for themselves. Even during this economic downturn, choosing to invest in the stock market can still provide excellent return on investments. Making the right investments is all about analysis, timing, and emotionless decision making. You also need a great broker.
Unfortunately, choosing to hire a broker can be expensive – especially if you choose one from a more distinguished firm. While these individuals have incredible knowledge about the stock market, they also charge high commission fees which can greatly reduce your return on investment, and quite honestly, not many people have the additional funds to hire such a broker.
Online Brokerage Options
However, for those wishing to avoid the high brokerage fees, there are numerous online trading platforms that can help with trading. These online trading platforms allow users to purchase stocks at relatively inexpensive prices and provide users with the most up-to-date analysis available so that they may make educated investing decisions. A few of the most popular platforms for online investing include:
• E-Trade
• Scottrade
• Fidelity
While each of these platforms has their own unique advantages and disadvantages, they are all industry leaders and generally good choices. Prior to choosing a firm, investors should read reviews including the E-Trade, Fidelity, and Scottrade review at different sites around the Web to ensure they are choosing the company that will best suit their needs and budget.
What to Look for in an Online Broker
Investors using online trading platforms also don’t have to worry about going at trading alone. Most of the online companies have brokers on staff who are willing and able to assist users and help them make good investing decisions. However, before signing up with an online trading platform, investors should always make sure that they are choosing a company with minimal account fees and low margin rates.
Conclusions
Trading stocks online can be a great way to invest additional savings, but investors should not let online trading become their only investments. The stock market is highly volatile, and those who don’t give their investments the time and dedication they need, risk losing their hard earned money. Diversification is, and always will be, the best way to manage your investments, and although only investing can produce worthwhile ROIs, no investor should ever rely on them solely for their savings.
How about you all? What is your favorite online stock and/or mutual fund trading brokerage?
What features do you specifically look for in an online broker?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.
- @ Investing Strategy of Buying/Selling Individual Stocks –
- If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you probably know that I am not the biggest fan of individual stock trading.
- Instead, I employ what’s called a passive investing strategy/approach.
- However, I’m not totally against people investing in individual stocks. In fact, I think it’s healthy to invest a little play money in stocks to test your hand at fundamental and technical analysis. However, I would not recommend that any one base their retirement funds on money invested in individual stocks.
- @ 3 Online Brokers Listed Above –
- Of the 3 online brokers listed above, I’ve only bought and sold mutual funds with Fidelity and Scottrade. I have never used E-Trade.
- Between the pair of Scottrade and Fidelity, Fidelity is definitely better for investing in mutual funds, mostly because they offer low-cost index mutual funds which trade free of commission within a Fidelity account.
- For individual stock trading online, I would not recommend Scottrade, Fidelity, or E-Trade. Instead, I would go with a discount broker such as Zecco.com or Sogotrade.com. Both of these offer trades for around $3-$4.
- @ Diversification –
- Diversification is extremely important in saving for retirement. If you must invest in individual stocks, be sure to own at least 5 stocks in different industries to obtain sufficient diversification.
- In addition, before investing in stocks, ensure that you have 1) health insurance and 2) an adequate emergency fund consisting of 6-9 months of expenses in a liquid, cash account.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh/3914312938/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Tour de Personal Finance 2011 Post-Race Show – Awards Ceremony, Race Recap, and Goals for Next Year’s Tour
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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On June 24th, I made the somewhat “last-minute” decision to organize an event/idea that had been incubating in my head since about February of this year. What solidified from this jumbled mesh of ideas and random “shot in the dark” intuitions was the introductory post and goal layout for the 2011 Tour de Personal Finance.
Over one month later, the Tour de Personal Finance has ended, a winner has been crowned, and I can decisively say that the 2011 edition of the event has been a great success! The success could not have been possible without tremendous support from the participants and readers/voters. A big round of applause is in order for all of you!
Awards Ceremony
- Yellow Jersey – Winner of overall competition. Article voted “best” by readers. Way to go!
- The Yellow Jersey winner for 2011 is Donna Freedman with her article entitled, “This isn’t your grandparents’ recession.” A brief description of the article is shown below:
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Ever since the recession began I think there’s WAY too much blaming of the victims. I’m good and sick of hearing pundits grumble about how lazy and soft Americans have become, and how we ought to take a few lessons from the Great Depression. Here’s the thing: The world was a different place back then. Heaven knows I’m no apologist for slackers, credit-card spendthrifts or people who won’t take anything but the “right” job, but a lot of the advice our elders offered/modeled isn’t relevant today. Plenty of folks are in big trouble not because they’re lazy, but because of complex personal, local, national and global economic issues.
- Podium Placings – The 2nd and 3rd placed articles that are on the podium with Donna Freedman are shown below. Congrats for making it so far in to the competition!
- 2nd Place – Paula from Afford Anything with her article entitled, “If I Had a Million Dollars, I’d Go Into Debt.” A short description of her article is shown below:
- What would I do if I won a million dollars? This post describes how I’d invest every last penny, scrutinizing tax benefits, risk, returns, real estate, and why I would go into debt — yes, I would go into debt — if I were a millionaire. And don’t just take my word for it: Einstein backs me up, and so does third-world poverty theory. Read this post to find out more.
- 3rd Place – Jesse from PF Firewall with his article entitled, “What The Piano Tuner Taught Me.” A brief description is as follows: You can learn a lot from a person by their chosen profession even if that profession is not something you fully understand or are familiar with. Their passion, their spirit, their seemingly perfect fit with the intricate details involved – these things are clear when someone truly loves what they do. That and much more is what I learned from Howard the piano tuner. Read this article to learn more!
- White Jersey – Goes to highest placing, new blog (blog that was started less than one year ago).
- The White Jersey winner for 2011 is Paula from Afford Anything. Her article (“If I Had a Million Dollars, I’d Go Into Debt“) made it to the final, championship (17th) Stage.
- Quite impressive for a blog that was only started back in March of 2011! I wish I had grown my readership and support base that quickly when I started blogging! haha
- Green Jersey – Goes to the blog whose article wins a single stage “the fastest.” In other words, the Green Jersey goes to the blog who wins a single stage by the biggest margin against their competitor.
- The Green Jersey winner for 2011 is Jesse from PF Firewall. His article entitled, “What The Piano Tuner Taught Me,” won one of the Stages in which it was competing by an 11:1 ratio over his competitor! Quite impressive! Nice work Jesse! The sprinters of the Tour de France (such as Thor Hushovd and Mark Cavendish) would be proud of you! Your next goal will have to be to win 6 stages like Cavendish did this year in the Tour de France!
- Polka-Dot Jersey – Goes to the best placing blog article entered which details information on “climbing” out of the debt “mountain”.
- The Polka-Dot Jersey winner for 2011 is Glen from Free From Broke. His article entitled, “The Greatest Impact On My Finances And My Best Financial Tool,” made it to the 3rd Round of competition and features a great story about he and his wife created a powerful combination to get out of debt and keep their finances healthy! Nice work Glen!
Race Recap
The 2011 Tour de Personal Finance began on July 2nd (same day as the first Stage of the 2011 Tour de France) with 46 participants/blogs.
In order to start and finish in the same approximate time period as the actual Tour de France, the competition proceeded quickly through the first round with 8 blogs (4 intermediate sprints per day). Each sprint was given 3 days for voting to occur, and because of the time frame needed to keep pace with the Tour de France, no adjustments were made in voting based on weekday/weekend scheduling. In the last two Rounds of competition, voting was extended to a four day time period to give everyone a chance to vote.
You can view the complete story of how each Stage played out by viewing the 2011 Tour de Personal Finance Bracket.
When all was said and done, the month-long event featured the following statistics:
- 17 total Stages
- 26 blog posts
- 753 total comments/votes – Wow! That is an awesome amount of participation! Thanks to everyone involved!
- 3,000 page views of Tour de Personal Finance Stages and posts.
- 2,083 unique visitors to Tour de Personal Finance Stages and posts.
2011 Reflections and Goals for 2012 Tour de Personal Finance
As I mentioned above, I think that overall, the 2011 edition of this event went very well.
Listed below are the things that I very much enjoyed about this event the past month:
- It’s enabled me to interact and get to know many new bloggers and readers.
- I’ve learned a lot by reading some of the best articles from each blogger’s site that have participated in this competition.
- I liked how the race started and end of the race stages coincided with the start and finish of the 2011 Tour de France. I thought that was really cool!
Listed below are some things that I see as areas for improvement:
- First, in this year’s event, we had 46 participants. Even though this is a round number and event pairings/bracket placements were chosen with a random number generator, the participants in the “lower-half” of the bracket had one less Round of competition to get through. Even though I don’t think this ultimately affected the final placings, it is something I could see improving in the coming years.
- Because of this, I’d like to start promoting the event earlier next year and get a total of 64 blogs involved to make everything evened out.
- If I were running this contest in an ideal world, I would want the voting for each Stage to start and stop on a weekday in order to take advantage of the increased readership that happens during the week. However, in order to keep up with the pace of the Tour de France, the contests had to be started/stopped on weekends, as needed.
- I’d like to get everyone’s input on this subject – do you think it’s more important to align the event with the actual Tour de France or to provide better timing for weekday voting for each article?
- I think that at a minimum, for the 2012 edition (with 64 participants), I will at least start the even 1 week prior to the start of July.
- Lastly, in the coming year’s of the Tour de Personal Finance, I’d like to offer some sort of prize to the winner(s) of the competition.
- At the very least, I would like to offer a gift card to the yellow jersey winner sponsored by my site.
- However, what I will likely try to do for 2012 is to promote the event earlier (using the traffic stats above) and get some sponsors (maybe even a title sponsor).
- With the money generated from sponsorship, I would then look to donate half of it to the charity that the winner elects.
- What does everyone think of this idea? Anybody have any ideas for companies/websites that would be interested in this sponsorship?
How about you all? What did you think of the 2011 Tour de PF? What would you like to see the different or the same for next year’s event?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/phillipo/3574507782/sizes/l/in/photostream/
You’re Homeless. How Would You Improve Your Situation?
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- In my possession, I have $20 and a valid Driver’s License.
- I am living in a mid-sized Midwest United States city with an adequate bus/trolley system for public transportation. In this way, transportation is not a limiting factor.
- I do not have a college degree(s), but did graduate from high school (or have the equivalent G.E.D certification).
- I have clothes that enable me to fit in with regular people. In this way, I don’t automatically appear homeless.
- Minister at Your Local Church
- Irregardless of my personal religious beliefs, probably the best source of information for where I can receive aid from the local community would be a minister/pastor/reverend at a local church.
- These individuals have experience with local community aid organizations, and can serve as a true “one-stop-shop” for how I should proceed in getting assistance.
So, that is how I would personally proceed in “stabilizing” my situation. However, just to give you all an idea of the types of organizations available to aid homeless people, I’ve put together a short list below.
- Homeless shelters
- These are organizations, such as The Salvation Army, that provide rooms for homeless people.
- You can find homeless shelters in your city/state at the following link – Homeless Shelter Directory.org
- Food banks
- Provide free meals to those in need.
- You can find food banks in your city/state at the following link – Find Food Banks By State/City
- Airport Valet – I’ve heard that some of these guys/gals make $100,000 per year. Just think – if you get $1 in tips per bag, that could add up quickly!
- Restaurant Waiter
- Tour guide/Bus or Shuttle Driver
- Sonic Drive-In Worker
- Porta-Potty Cleaner – This doesn’t involve tips, but due to the grotesque nature of the work, you can make $50,000 per year.
- Telephone Telemarketing – I’ve heard that people can make $15-$20 per hour with this. Plus, it’s air-conditioned!
How about you all? If you were homeless, what steps would you take to improve your situation? Have you ever known any one that was homeless?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/roughgroove/2473248707/lightbox/
Cavalcade of Risk # 136 – Riskiest Sports Edition – July 27th, 2011
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Welcome everyone to the July 27th, 2011 edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. The Cavalcade of Risk, as is implicated by the name, is a bi-weekly blog carnival that features the top articles regarding risk management.
My Personal Finance Journey is honored to be hosting the Cav again this week. The last time we hosted (on March 23rd of this year), we featured a bunch of very interesting articles and centered the Carnival around the theme of the riskiest jobs in the United States. What we saw was that fishing and logging-related jobs weighed in as the riskiest occupations, with MANY more deaths per 100,000 workers than the other top-ranking riskiest jobs.
Continuing on with this theme of exploring high risk activities, the theme of this week’s carnival is the top 3 riskiest sports in the world. But, without further ado, let’s get on with the Carnival.
Listed below are this week’s Top 3 Editor’s Picks! Enjoy!
1. Jason Shafrin presents Does Physician income increase from treating more complex patients? posted at Healthcare Economist.
This article presents a very interesting aspect about the ever-changing economic landscape of medical care. And, it was something that I could relate to since several members of my family are physicians as well.
From what I’ve heard from my family members, more and more doctors these days are getting paid based on the number of patients they see, not the complexity or time each case takes to treat. Even though this doesn’t make total sense and I don’t understand the thought process that the hospitals/payers employed to arrive at the strategy, it seems to be the reality of what is occurring. Jason’s article seems to support this trend as well.
2. Russell Hutchinson presents The History of Life Insurance posted at Chatswood Consulting Moneyblog.
It was no surprise to me to learn that the concept of insurance is not new. However, I didn’t realize just how “not-new” it really was until I read this article. Russell’s article at the link above gives some very interesting accounts of insurance being seen 5000 or more years ago! Pretty cool stuff!
3. Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC presents Risk Management and Cell Phones posted at InsureBlog.
Cells phones have really become a universal item for people to carry around with them. In fact, it’s becoming more and more prevalent for people to not have a home phone at all and just use their cell phone for all of their calling needs.
While this does streamline a person’s life quite a bit, it also can create significant distractions – especially for people that get cell phone calls while they are driving. Henry’s article shares some interesting results from a comprehensive study showing that even hands-free cell phone calling while driving is not any safer than using a regular cell phone. This is definitely food for thought…
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3rd Riskiest Sport – Horseracing
Personally, I would never have expected that this activity would rank so high on the list. But, I suppose that any time you combine high speeds with beasts weighing in at close to 800 lbs that could run over the riders, you have some danger that could happen!
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And, listed below are the best of the rest!
Stefan presents Calculate the risk of investments using the Altman Z-score posted at Skuzet, saying, “Always wanted to know how you can calculate the risk you take with your investments? Use the Altman Z-score to calculate the investment risk of your investments. Better though, use the Altman Z-calculator to calculate the risks on several selected stocks.”
Nancy Germond presents Most Exit Interviews Are a Waste of Time posted at Risk Management for the 21st Century.
Jaan Sidorov MD presents More On The Impact of Health Information Technology on Medical Practice: Errors of Ommission posted at The Disease Management Care Blog.
Well – that concludes this edition. Thanks for tuning in!
You can submit your blog article to the next edition of Cavalcade of Risk (scheduled for August 10th and hosted by Jason @ Healthcare Economist) using the handy carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Also, if you are interested in hosting the Cavalcade of Risk in the future, just send Henry (the organizer) an email by clicking here.
***Photo courtesy of http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=dangerous
***Riskiest sports ranking source – http://bet-grand-national.com/dangerous-sports.html
My Personal Finance Journey Vs. The United States of America – Round 2 – What Interest Rate is Your Savings Account Earning?
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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For the past three months, we were running a poll on the left sidebar of the site. This poll was seeking an answer to the question below:
What annual interest rate are you receiving on your savings account?
With savings account interest rates being almost sickeningly low these days, the goal of this poll was to make sure that we’re all doing the best we can in maximizing our savings account returns.
In the course of the three months that the poll was running, we received a total of 41 votes, with the answer distributions as shown in the pie chart below:
As you can see in the chart, the majority of people on My Personal Finance Journey are receiving an annual interest rate of 1% or higher. This is very good! Great job readers!
Second place was an interest rate in the range of 0.76% to 1%, and third place was an interest rate of 0.05% of less.
How Does This Compare With The Rest of The United States?
So, we were able to see that the majority of MPFJ readers are earning 1% or higher in interest on their savings account totals. Having established this, we then wanted to see how these numbers compare to the rest of the country.
According to BankRate.com, the national average interest rate for savings and money market savings accounts is 0.17%.
Examining the results in the pie chart above, over 78% of MPFJ readers are earning a higher interest rate than the national average. While this is a really good result, there is still room for improvement. With online banks such as ING Direct offering 1% interest rate savings accounts with no fees and no minimums, there really is no excuse for people in this day and age to be in any category below the 0.75-1% interest rate group.
Of particular concern to me is the 14.6% of voters in the 0.05% interest rate or lower category. These people are most likely not taking advantage of online savings account options. For example, Bank of America and Wells Fargo (some of the biggest brick-and-mortar US banks) savings account are only currently offering a 0.05% annual interest rate. For those readers that fell in to this interest rate category, I would highly recommend checking out the BankRate.com savings account comparison link above to find an online bank that is offering a higher interest rate. You can easily connect these online accounts to your brick-and-mortar bank’s checking account, and many of them are offering interest rates above 1% per year. Please let me know if you have any questions!
A big thanks to everyone for voting in the poll and generating some good on-site discussion about this very important topic.
The next 3-month poll (up now on the site in the same top left side-bar location) involves the topic of mutual fund expense/fee ratios. In today’s economy, many people use mutual funds to invest for retirement in their 401k and/or IRA accounts. However, since there are thousands of mutual fund options to choose from, it’s imperative to select funds that offer the lowest fees possible while still accomplishing your investment strategy. One way that I accomplish this is through the use of low-fee index mutual funds. But, more on that later after the poll results are tallied! I look forward to seeing how the voting goes!
How about you all? How does your current savings account interest rate compare with either the national average or the results of the site poll? Do the poll results seem consistent with what you’ve experienced as well?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
Ask the Readers – Opinions on the Recent Netflix Pricing Change and Gas Price Level Needed for Behavior Change?
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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It’s been a while since I did an “Ask the Readers” post here on My Personal Finance Journey. In fact, the last one I did was all the way back on January 1st of this year when I asked if everyone was being patient about investing in their 2011 Roth IRA or if they were already contributing money to it (like I excitedly was).
Needless to say, it’s been too long! To make up for this, I’ve got a double-feature “Ask the Readers” post for you all today!
Ask the Readers Question # 1: How Has the Recent Netflix Pricing Program Change Affected You?
Netflix is often regarded among frugal living fanatics as a safe-haven or oasis where we can obtain our DVD, movie, Blue-Ray, and TV series entertainment fix for much less than it costs for monthly cable television. Indeed, I am no exception to this rule, being a loyal Netflix user myself.
Because many of their subscribers are very dedicated practitioners of frugal living, it’s no surprise that there has been a significant outcry against the recent increase in pricing of their monthly DVD and instant streaming program options.
As I was putting together the information for this post, I was searching around Netflix’s home page and was somewhat alarmed to see that they don’t clearly list their new prices for their different rental programs. The only way to clearly find this information is to be logged in to your account. In order to shed more light on the new prices, I’ve attached a screen-shot of the different pricing programs at the end of this post. From what I can tell, it appears that they have increased their prices by around 33%.
Ask the Readers Question: How has the change in Netflix’s prices affected you? Did you downgrade rental programs or pay the added costs to keep the same program?
Personally, I have been on the 2 DVD’s out-at-a-time unlimited rental + unlimited instant movie streaming for $15 per month for the past 2 years. When I was informed of the recent increase in the price of this program to $20 per month, I simply told myself that the extra $5 per month isn’t worth it to watch instant streaming movies/TV series. Therefore, I downgraded to the $11.99 per month 2 DVD’s at-a-time program.
Thanks Netflix! You now receive $4 less per month from me! Way to go! However, overall, I am still a big Netflix fan. I believe they still provide a better service than BlockBuster.com and is MUCH MUCH of a better deal for me than paying for cable each month.
Ask the Readers Question # 2: At What Price Does Gasoline Have to Increase to In Order for You to Change Your Everyday Driving Behavior?
According to GasBuddy.com, the current average price per gallon of gas in the United States is $3.69.
Many of my friends drive almost 40 miles to and from work. At a total of 80 miles and figuring 20 mpg average fuel consumption, this adds up to almost $14.76 expenditure in gas per day. Assuming that they make approximately $30 per hour in their job (before tax), the means that they work 30 minutes per day just paying for gas. If you think about it, this type of expenditure can be become very significant over the long term.
Ask the Readers Question: At what price would gas need to rise to in order for you to change your everyday driving behavior?
Personally, I think that my absolute breaking point for when I would definitely have to change my driving situation is if I was having to work 1 hour per day to pay for the gas to get me to my job. If that was the case, I would try to figure out some way to either carpool or move closer to where I work in order to reduce the expenditure. However, I would most likely try carpooling before it got to the 1 hour per day level.
I look forward to hearing everyone’s take on these two topics!
Reference Figure – Netflix Rental Program Prices (not easy to find unless you are signed in and are a current subscriber)
7 Reasons Why Being a Financial Blogger Could Be Better Than Being A Financial Professional
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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One comment/question I get asked about once per month is something along the lines of the following:
I enjoy reading your blog! It seems like you’ve got a pretty good base of knowledge about personal finance. Have you ever thought about working the financial industry?
It’s a very interesting question and one that I have given some thought to from time to time because I really do enjoy learning about personal finance. In fact, it probably wouldn’t be all that hard to switch careers because I did get an undergraduate degree in finance as well as engineering. However, my answer is always pretty quickly generated as a firm, “No.”
The reason for this is because while I enjoy learning about finance (and personal finance in particular) as a hobby, being involved in science as my primary career has always been more fulfilling at the end of the day. However, if I were to be in the financial industry, I would probably want to do one of the jobs below (the 2nd one listed would be my first choice actually):
- Work at Vanguard assisting with index mutual funds and trying to make them more competitive by decreasing expense ratios.
- Work as a fee-based financial planner, helping individuals and families get out of debt and save for retirement.
Because I want to make a science-based job my primary career and do personal finance as a hobby, blogging is a perfect fit for me!
And, the other day, I was doing some brainstorming and thought it would be fun to share 7 reasons that I came up with why being a financial blogger might actually be better than being a financial professional. I’ve listed these below. Enjoy!
7. Thoughts of financial bloggers can be conveyed 24 hours a day.
Unlike financial professionals who have to meet with clients to share their ideas, all of the advice and ideas a blogger has to offer is splayed out on a website which can be accessed even when he or she is sleeping. This is one of the cool things that attracted me to start blogging!
6. Bloggers don’t have to answer to clients asking why their investment account balance went down.
From what I’ve read, financial advisers who work with wealthy clients especially have a lot of pressure placed on them whenever their managed account balances go down. Naturally, bloggers don’t have to worry about this.
5. You can have international clients and an international audience.
Blogging enables you to set up your little corner of the Internet and make your ideas accessible to anyone in the world at a computer. Furthermore, you can have clients (advertisers) from all over the world and execute business remotely.
4. Financial bloggers can blog from anywhere in the world.
With blogging, you don’t have to work in a busy office building or a crowded stock trading floor. You can work from the comfort of your own office or home from any location.
3. With financial blogging, you don’t need a finance degree or any special financial certification.
One of the great things about financial blogging is that it is open to anyone who has an interest in it and can generate good conversation, opinions, and logical thoughts. In fact, many of the financial bloggers I know come from diverse backgrounds, and many are engineers.
2. Bloggers do not have to worry about conflicts of interest in what we write about.
For example, investment advisers at a firm like Edward Jones get paid based on commission when you trade stock. So, they get paid only when you buy/sell stock. In other words, growing your account balances isn’t their number one goal because it is not based on how they are paid.
This, in my mind, creates a severe conflict of interest which bloggers do not have to worry about.
1. Financial blogging is not official financial advice.
This is my personal favorite for why financial blogging could be better than being a financial professional, as it relates to the very nature of what financial blogging is.
The purpose of financial blogging is to create discussion and give people ideas to research further. It is not to be used for direct financial advice, as the advice is that comes from a financial professional. However, just between you and me, the advice of some of the good bloggers out there is probably worth every bit as much as the advice from financial professionals.
For example, the disclaimer that is on the bottom of every page of My Personal Finance Journey is shown below – “The information provided on this site is not financial advice, and I am not a financial professional. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities, or to invest in any specific product. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. Thanks for visiting!”
Note: if you’re a financial professional, please realize this list is meant only for fun (not an attack on the financial industry) and that I admire you all very much for what you do.
How about you all? What do you feel would be some of the advantages of being a financial blogger over a financial professional? What are some of the disadvantages?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=blogger#