Friday Finance Findings For December 21st
By Jeremy on Dec 21, 2007 with Comments 2
Today I’m happy to direct you to a post I made over at the Prosper Blog that has a few quick tips for helping you get out of debt. From time to time I will be posting over there in addition to my regular schedule here as well as my financial planning column over at About.com. Feel free to check it out, and aside from that brief announcement, here are the other interesting topics I’ve found from the past week.
What Are Your Health Insurance Options After Termination? – Health insurance is a significant benefit if your employer offers it, but what happens when you suddenly lose your job or retire before becoming eligible for Medicare?
Save Money on Wine – Lazy Man has some good tips on how to save a few bucks the next time you purchase wine. We follow the box advice at our house, as it is nice to have a relatively cheap wine available daily if desired. Sure, we won’t plop down a box of Franzia if we have dinner guests, but for the two of us, keeping a box around is a big savings.
Budgeting for a Better 2008 – It shouldn’t take the beginning of a new year to create a sound budget, but unfortunately that is when most of us really sit down and try to tackle this part of our finances. Ben has some tips to help you get 2008 off to a good start.
When Beating the Stock Market is Really an Illusion – Think your stocks are beating the market? You might want to think again. SVB shows how many people may think that their investments are beating the market, but in the big picture are earning nothing more than a high yield savings rate.
Get a Free $100 When Opening an OptionXpress Account – Who doesn’t like free money? If you have been considering a new brokerage account, you may want to consider OptionXpress. Don’t let the name fool you, you can do much more than trade options as this is a full brokerage account.
4 Terrible Books About Money – Jim asked me what one of the worst money books was, and I came up with Rich Dad, Poor Dad. You can see my reason in the post, but I think that most people could benefit more from learning the very basics of finance. While the book has some great concepts that can help certain people, if you’re swimming in debt or can’t afford to save for retirement, this book probably isn’t for you.
Thoughts on the New Energy Bill – Nickel has some thoughts on the new energy bill. There is a lot of discussion surrounding this bill lately, and some feel it isn’t enough, while others think it is going too far. Weigh in with your thoughts at Five Cent Nickel.
Jump-Start Your Debt Reduction Using Christmas Gifts and Year-End Bonuses – Will you be receiving cash as a gift or a year-end bonus? Don’t throw that money away on some gadget if you have debt to pay off. You can accelerate your debt repayment by putting this money to good use.
More on Target Date Retirement Funds – ChanceFavors expanded on a poll I held last week in regards to what type of asset allocation people use. There is a lot of in-depth information that can help you better understand the role these funds play in your portfolio.
Use Your Curtains to Save on Heating Costs – That’s right, proper use of the curtains on your windows may help not only heating costs, but cooling costs in the summer as well. Find out how at Free Money Finance.
Be Careful About Tipping Your Hand – It is nice to be able to share information about things that you know, but you want to be careful that you’re giving information to the right people, and not giving too much away.
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Filed Under: Friday Finance Findings
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Congrats on your new contributions to the Prosper blog! It’s exciting to continue growing your empire.
Let me just say one thing abt prosper.com — be VERY careful — 3 of my loans have now gone late +5 month in collections and basically have defaulted— and there is very very little recourse you can have in these cases.. also nobody in this credit environment is gonna repurchase the defunct loans even at steep discounts on the dollar… so im done with prosper – seems just an easy way for people to scam some free money (up to 25 grand!)