December 2008

The Federal Reserve Approves Sweeping Credit Card Reform

December 19, 2008

The Federal Reserve yesterday approved final rules aimed at protecting consumers by prohibiting certain unfair acts or practices by credit card issuers. The new rules were adopted under the Federal Trade Commission Act, and similar rules were concurrently adopted by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration. The good news for [...]

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Starting a Business During a Recession–A Real Life Story

December 17, 2008

This post comes from good friends of mine who recently designed, manufactured, and are now marketing an educational board game that helps children learn to read. Through this article and a few more to come, they will share with you their experiences running a business. Have you ever had an intriguing business idea? How many [...]

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Discover More Card Review

December 13, 2008

Updated: The Discover More Card is no longer offered by Discover. It’s been replaced by the Discover it Credit Card. I recently took advantage of a 0% balance transfer offer on the Discover® More® Card. Because I take advantage of just about every balance transfer opportunity I can find, I’ve gotten to know the websites [...]

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Morningstar User Guide

December 13, 2008

Morningstar is the premier destination for investment research, news, tools and analysis. Whether you invest in individual stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, derivatives or even hedge funds, Morningstar can help make you a smarter (and richer) investor. I’ve been a premium member of Morningstar for a long time, but even its free level of membership offers [...]

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How to Set SMART Financial Goals

December 11, 2008

There is only one thing worse than not setting financial goals–setting ineffective financial goals. A perfect example of a worthless goal is, “I want to achieve financial freedom.” While it may sound good, we don’t know what financial freedom is, so how will we know when we have arrived? A slightly better goal is, “I [...]

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Carnival of Money Stories Edition No. 88

December 9, 2008

Welcome to the Carnival of Money Stories, 88th Edition. A story can be a powerful learning tool, and stories about money are no exception. From the Wealthy Barber, to the parable of the talents, to the Merchant of Venice, powerful stories enable us to see our money habits in ways that dry, personal finance books [...]

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How Smarter Money Management Can Make You a Cool $826.75 in 10 Minutes

December 6, 2008

This post is a story about how I made $826.75 in about 10 minutes this morning, and more importantly, how you can, too. This post is also about following the Dough Roller on Twitter, but more about that in a moment. Let’s first get to the money part of this post, which is an example [...]

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7 Unexpected Ways Your Credit Score Affects Your Finances

December 1, 2008

We all know just how important our credit score is when we apply for a loan. High credit scores get approved, while low scores do not, subject to other factors of course. But as it turns out, your credit score and credit history affect a lot more than whether you get approved for a loan. [...]

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