About a month ago, I wrote about Tip’d, which is a bit like Digg, but with a financial focus. People can submit links, and Tip’d users vote on them. If an article receives enough votes, it makes it to the front page. Thus, Tip’d
As I noted previously, the big advantage of a site like [...]

Read the full article »

According to a recent article in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, the online arm of the First National Bank of Omaha, known as FNBO Direct, offers the best high yield online savings account. Here’s their synopsis:
Earn 3.50% on your FDIC-insured savings at FNBO Direct. You pay just $1 to open an account with no maintenance fees and [...]

Read the full article »

As if the recent stock market turmoil hasn’t been enough, here’s a disturbing trend for retirement savers… According to a recent article, General Motors and Frontier Airlines have both stopped matching employee contributions to their 401(k) retirement accounts.
While these companies happen to be in particularly downtrodden industries, and thus might not be a harbinger of [...]

Read the full article »

Every year around this time, the good folks over at the Wall Street Journal put together their income tax bracket projections for the next year. Because the personal exemption amount, standard deduction and marginal tax rates are all pegged to inflation, these amounts are all adjusted annually based on current inflation data.
While the IRS hasn’t [...]

Read the full article »

Around here, open enrollment has come and gone. All in all, it was a pretty painless process for us. Our health insurance increased in price by roughly 7%, my long term disability (LTD) coverage actually improved a bit, and everything else remained pretty much the same. The only real decision that we had to make [...]

Read the full article »

While a great many Americans have been focusing on the possibility of another stimulus check, the $1000 Emergency Energy Rebate has been flying a bit under the radar. In case you’re not aware, President-Elect Obama has floated the idea of enacting a windfall profits tax on “excessive oil company profits” in order to fund an [...]

Read the full article »

Kenneth Lin, the CEO of Credit Karma recently e-mailed me about their site, which offers free credit score tracking. Credit Karma has actually been around for awhile, but I had never bothered signing up until Kenneth contacted me. I figured that it’s free, so what’s the harm in trying?
Checking it out
Setting up an account was [...]

Read the full article »

Remember back in July when the projected number of bank failures for 2008 was sitting at nine? Well… Here we are in November, and banks #18 and #19 just closed their doors. According to an AP report this weekend:
Regulators shut down Houston-based Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on Friday, bringing the [...]

Read the full article »

With the holidays just around the corner, I thought I’d put together a list of credit cards that are offering 0% APR on purchases. Like 0% balance transfer offers, these sorts of promos can be a great deal for savvy consumers.
Assuming that you buy only what you can afford, you can pay off your [...]

Read the full article »

With less than two months to go before 2009, I though it would be worth taking a look at IRA contribution limits for 2009. As of 2008, contribution limits are indexed to inflation and will increase in $500 increments (as necessary). Unfortunately, there’s not much to report here, as the limits are staying the same [...]

Read the full article »