February 2010

Money Ratios: Are You on Track to Retire Early (or at all)?

February 15, 2010

One of the hardest things in all of finance to figure out is whether you’re on track to retire when you want to retire. There are so many variables, ranging from how much you’ll save, to the returns you’ll earn, to how much you will actually need during retirement. And then there are countless unknowns, [...]

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What is an Insurance Bureau Score?

February 12, 2010

You’ve undoubtedly heard of a FICO credit score. We’ve talked about credit scores in the past, including how to improve your score and how to get your FICO score. But what you may have never heard of before is your Insurance Bureau Score. If you have a credit score, you have an insurance score, too. [...]

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The 10 Most and 10 Least Expensive Cars To Insure

February 12, 2010

Last week, I received an email from my car insurance provider, Progressive, that the address they had on file was out of date.  After reading this, I knew that I was about to pay a little extra for the premium I booked months ago.  Purposefully, I did not change my address when I moved because [...]

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Don’t Be Stupid… Financially Speaking

February 11, 2010

This guest post comes from Darwin’s Finance, a blog focused on approaching personal finances from an innovative evolutionary standpoint, and ETFBase, which is focused solely on ETF strategies and news. So Google coined “Don’t be Evil”. I’m not the first one to say “Don’t be Stupid” and I won’t be the last. But I see [...]

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Should a Credit Card Act as Your Emergency Fund?

February 11, 2010

It’s a commonly accepted rule of personal finance that one should save 3 to 6 month’s worth of expenses in an emergency fund. Reserved for true emergencies, the conventional wisdom dictates that you stash your cash in a high rate savings account or maybe a short-term high yield CD. The key is to have ready [...]

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How To Pick a Winning Bond Fund

February 10, 2010

Many investors don’t pay much attention to the bond portion of their portfolio. And that’s not surprising. Bond funds aren’t very exciting. I suspect most investors’ reasoning goes something like this: If I pick a winning stock fund, my results improve dramatically. If I pick a winning bond fund, my results improve by what, one [...]

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How to Open a Scottrade Brokerage Account Online

February 9, 2010

This past Sunday I opened a Scottrade account online. It took about 10 minutes and the process was very easy. This account is for an SEP IRA, although the process is pretty much the same regardless of the type of brokerage account you open. In this article, we’ll walk through what you need to open [...]

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H&R Block At Home Review & Coupon Codes

February 8, 2010

Year after year, I had filed my tax returns online with TurboTax and never thought anything of it.  My tax situation was pretty simple to understand. I had one job on the books and had enough federal income tax taken out of my weekly checks to receive a nice hefty refund.  After about 10 minutes [...]

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How to Find the Best Prepaid Card for a College Student

February 6, 2010

Prepaid cards are gaining popularity among college students (and their parents) for several reasons. First, with a prepaid card, you don’t have the risk of going deep into debt, high interest payments, or late fees. Second, if parents are involved in the finances, they can easily add money to the card online. And finally, under [...]

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