Personal Finance Blog, Your Guide to Financial Fitness
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David Bakke
One thing that I have recently learned regarding online shopping for airfares, car rentals, and hotel reservations, is that no longer do the “heavy-hitters” always give you the best rates. There are a lot of newer, lesser-known sites that a lot of times will have better pricing. I just finished researching the online booking website CheapOair. In addition to airfares, they offer great travel information and rates on cars, cruises, hotels and packages.
All the Same?
David Bakke
I’d like to consider myself a connoisseur when it comes to credit cards. Since I have learned how to use credit responsibly in my life, I have found that I have had differing needs at differing points in my life. I have also learned that more often than not, there is a credit card out there specifically tailored to those needs. It is important to do research each and every time you are looking for a new card. Many times you can find the card you need from one of the “heavy hitters” (Chase, Citi, Discover) without much research at all. Other times, you have to dig a little deeper. One thing I have learned, it’s not the size of the bank that matters or how “big” their name is. A lot of times, you can find great credit card deals from some of the smaller players.
Erik Folgate
Ever since I got the iPhone 3G about 16 months ago, it has been a gateway drug to Apple for me. I was so in love with it, that it caused me to buy an iMac, and then a 13″ Macbook Pro. I’m officially a Mac junkie, and I’ll never go back. You can go ahead and make fun of me, but having dealt with Windows PC’s for the past 15 years of my life and constantly being frustrated with them, I’ve drank the Apple Kool-Aid. That’s why I spent an hour and a half of my life on Monday following the live blog from Engadget about the keynote speech from Steve Jobs about their newest gadget, the iPhone 4. If you’ve already got an iPhone, then you’re probably either waiting for June 15th to pre-order it or you’re or the fence about whether you should upgrade. Or maybe you’ve been rocking an old Nokia cell phone for a while, and you’re wondering what smart phone you should upgrade to. Whatever your situation is, I’m going to throw a down and dirty review of the iPhone 4 and give you my not-so-unbiased opinion about whether you should get it or not.
Sally Aquire
As you can probably tell from the name, LendingTree deals with loans. More specifically, it acts as a convenient way for consumers to find loan options. I’ve had some personal experiences using LendingTree and want to give you some insight into the service.
Both personal and commercial loans can be taken out through the website. LendingTree doesn’t deal with loan requests directly. Instead, it gathers together your information (both personal and financial) and passes it over to member banks, who will then send you their rates from which you can compare and choose. This makes things a lot easier for you if you’re looking for a loan since you don’t have to spend a boatload of time shopping around to compare quotes.
Sally Aquire
The Quicken Deluxe personal finance software is designed to make it easy to budget and manage your money. In this respect, it sounds very similar to the You Need a Budget (YNAB) software, but it has some additional features that aren’t present in YNAB, such as investment tracking and tax preparation. This review focuses on the Quicken Deluxe 2010 software but you can also buy various other Quicken 2010 software, such as Quicken Premier, Quicken Home & Business and Quicken Home Inventory Manager.
Sally Aquire
Have you ever had a nightmare with a contractor, mechanic, or dentist? I’m sure we’ve all had a bad experience at some point in our lives, and it’s probably because you picked someone random, rather than from a referral. If you’re planning to spend a sizable amount of money on things like home repairs, home improvements or medical expenses, you’ll want to know that you’re not wasting your hard-earned cash.
Angie’s List was created with this in mind, and features reports and ratings from consumers who have used the service providers that they are reviewing to let others know if they should trust them. Because it’s not a free service, let’s take a more in-depth look at how it works so that you can assess whether it’s worth the expense.
Gyutae Park
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Print24. All opinions are 100% mine.
Whether you run a small business or are employed by a major company, business cards are an absolute must. They allow people you come in contact with to easily find you after the initial meeting and reach you for potential partnerships, deals, and jobs. However, it’s up to you to make a good impression and make everyone want to follow up with you in the first place. Otherwise, you can always enter into those business card drawings for free lunches at the local sandwich shop. :)
Erik Folgate
After a ton of hype, Apple’s iPad came out two Saturdays ago, and ever since then there have been thousands of articles written about it and the analysis has been all over the place. Some people are having a hard time figuring out who it’s right for and who it’s not. Some of you are just wondering why there’s so much hype surrounding it in the first place. The reason is because it is being tabbed a tablet computing device, but it’s much different than tablets from the past. It has no traditional keyboard, it uses a mobile operating system, you can interact with it like no other computing device, and it is razor thin. I’ve been reading a lot about the iPad, and I’ve made some opinions about who it works for, so here is my list of who it might be work for and who it will not.
Mark Riddix
The peer-to-peer lending concept is based on individuals conducting financial transactions without a middleman. The main advantage of peer to peer lending is that costs are lower since no payments need to be made to an intermediary. This is where Prosper comes into play.
Prosper is an online auction website where individuals can engage in peer-to-peer lending. Borrowers come to Prosper seeking funds for a number of different reasons. Lenders use Prosper to earn interest by lending money to borrowers. I’ve personally made $1,000 in loans through Prosper (none of which were defaulted on) and have had an overall good experience with the site. I’ll discuss a little more of my personal experiences with the product and share some advice for you in my “Final Thoughts” section below.
Mark Riddix
E*TRADE is probably the most well-known, major discount brokerage firm in the United States. I am sure that you are probably familiar with the Super Bowl commercial of the talking baby. Well, E*TRADE is more than just talking babies!
The company was started in 1991, and it is headquartered in New York City. The online broker has grown through acquisitions to become a major force in the financial services industry. E*TRADE Financial suffered a setback during the subprime crisis of 2007 and 2008. However, E*TRADE has rebounded nicely and been voted the top online broker by SmartMoney for the past three years.
Mark Riddix
With so many online brokers out there, finding the right one to meet all of your investing needs can feel like you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. The best way to find the right broker is by comparing their services and determining if they fit your financial goals. Today, I want to take a look at one of the leading online discount brokers in the country, Scottrade. Scottrade is one of the first discount brokers I used when I began my investing career and I’ve had a great experience with the product.
Mark Riddix
Have you ever heard of the Entertainment Book? If not, don’t worry! This review will tell you everything that you need to know about it. The Entertainment Book is a discount book that helps you save money on all of your entertainment purchases. Think of the Entertainment Book as a giant coupon book. There are over 150 different Entertainment Books published annually that offer discounts on local goods and services. The Entertainment Book can also be used for online shopping and at national chains throughout the United States. The Entertainment Book can save you on just about any purchase that you make.
Sally Aquire
Creating a budget is essential for keeping on top of your finances, but drawing up your own often creates too much headache and not enough results. We all know that budgeting is important, but actually sitting down and taking the time to write one is another story. Fortunately, you don’t have to if you sign up for You Need a Budget (YNAB), because this budgeting software does the hard work for you.
YNAB uses what it calls the “Four Rules of Cash Flow” to help you manage your cash. These are fully explained in the introduction to the software, but here is some brief information on the four rules.
Mark Riddix
You may have heard of a new personal financial site known as SmartyPig, but what is it?
SmartyPig was created in 2008 as an online site to help individuals save money for a specific goal. Think of SmartyPig as an online piggybank that pays a high interest rate. You can save for anything on SmartyPig including a wedding, a vacation, or a down payment on a home.
SmartyPig defines itself as “a simple, smart and secure way to save for a specific goal.” The unique aspect of the site is that SmartyPig lets friends, family members, and other users contribute to your savings goal. You can also contribute to other people’s savings accounts to help them achieve their goals.
Mark Riddix
There was a time when investors and traders could only buy securities through full-service brokerage houses. This changed during the nineties when we saw the rise of discount brokerage firms.
Discount brokerages are companies that charge lower fees than traditional brokers while typically offering fewer services. These brokers make it easier for the average person to have the opportunity to invest. We will take an in-depth look at a popular discount broker called TradeKing.
So, what is TradeKing? TradeKing is an online discount brokerage firm started in 2005 that allows investors to buy and sell securities for a minimal fee.
