Why You Need to Purchase Life Insurance

With America’s financial future in debate, paying an extra bill for life insurance each month may not seem to be worth it. If you have a family, then buying life insurance is one of the most important purchases you can make to ensure that your dependents will be taken care of if something unforeseen should happen to you. Life Insurance Products There are a variety of cheap life insurance products that can ensure the financial security of your family if you are no longer able to provide for...

Going Green to Keep More Green in Your Pocket

With much of the focus on going green today, the average family can do much to help the environment. Not only will you be doing your part for global warming and climate change, you will be doing your wallet a big favor as well. Investing for the Future The winds of change are definitely blowing in the direction of green business practices and sustainability. Instead of investing with the old tried and true methods, research the options for investing in companies that are promoting a small...

Saving Money Is The Key To Financial Success

Preparing for the future is more important than ever as you can no longer rely on the money you will receive from Social Security when you turn 65. Most people put the future in the back of their mind and live simply for today. If they don’t have the money to purchase some coveted item, they simply put it on their credit card without thought to the consequences. A savings plan in the not too distant past was something most families were proud to have and often budgeted money each week to depo...

Educating Young Children about Money

My mother-in-law is very generous when it comes to giving my children money. It usually comes in the form of $5 or $10 bills inserted into holiday cards or in person during the twice-a-year visits, at which time she chooses to hand them money in a covert way; a sheepish attempt to hide the fact that she's spoiling them. During a recent visit to the local grocery store, my 5-year-old, carrying one of these $5 bills, passed in front of this display of miniature cars that read "4 for $5." He was...

7 Stupid Strategies for Credit Card Consumerism

Consumers in the United States are leading the charge in the worldwide explosion of credit card debt; the total debt of American citizens alone is drawing ever closer to the vaunted trillion dollar mark. It takes some exceptionally irresponsible behavior to accumulate such impressive statistics, but there are a number of tried and true methods that can help you add your own two cents (or ten thousand dollars) to this historic effort. Just follow these seven simple guidelines to credit card use...

Reasons people spend more than they earn

Rule #1 of financial freedom is spending less than you earn. If you can't do that, you'll never be financially successful no matter how hard you work, how many hours you put in, how many promotions you receive, or how much money you make. It's a simple rule, and most would consider it common sense. But, the U.S. has a negative savings rate, meaning this common sense rule may not be so common place. I recently saw a statistic that claimed that about 43% of American families spend more than th...

Do you make bad financial decisions? Blame evolution.

According to this article in the Los Angeles Times, evolution accounts for a lot of our strange ideas about finances. Most people would rather earn $50,000 a year while people around them made $25,000, than earn $100,000 a year while people around them earned $250,000. Irrational, but in this case, relative social ranking trumps absolute financial status. Thousands of experiments in behavioral economics, neuroeconomics and evolutionary economics conclusively demonstrate that we are every...

Secrets That Helped The Rich Get Rich

Reader's Digest recently posted a article titled Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. While I don't think there are any "secrets" to becoming a millionaire, it's good to be reminded of what is important, especially by those who have already made it. I really liked the following quote: “For the rich, it’s not about getting more stuff. It’s about having the freedom to make almost any decision you want,” says T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. That is one of the description...

Who’s Investing in Real Estate?

In the world of investing we often hear talk about being a contrarian, not following the crowd, buying low and selling high. There is currently a subprime mortgage debacle and a housing downturn. So, with real estate as out of favor as it is right now, I'd like to know who's investing in it. Recently REITs, on average, have been selling for about 20 percent less than their net asset values. In her article, It's REIT Time, And You Can Buy Low, Kathy Kristof suggests that at these discounte...

Real Estate Mania – A History of Home Values

This graph is pretty amazing. It's pretty obvious that the real estate mania was out of control and that a correction was necessary.(Click for full size, and think twice when considering property investing)

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