Pop quiz: How much do you spend each month on dining out? Gas? How much do you give to charity? Well, if you’re living in New York City (zip code 10016 to be exact), you spend $869 eating out, $67 on gas (you likely don’t own a car, and if you do it’s garaged much of the time), and give $148 to charity. If you’re in San Francisco (94117), you spend $522 dining out, $114 on gas and give $74 to charity. And if you’re in Houston (77036), just $147 eating out, but $146 on gas and give $62 to charity.
Personally, I find this sort of data fascinating. I spend time wondering why folks in Houston spend so much less on auto expenses than in the other zips. (Is it because a) cars hold up better in Texas, b) they know how to perform routine maintenance themselves, or c) they all have leased cars covered by warranty?) More…
Today on Money 911, the experts panel answered a variety of your financial questions. What’s the right plan to start saving for your kids’ college tuition costs? What is the difference between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy? How much should I put away a day to start planning for retirement? For the answers to these questions and more, watch the video below!
Do you feel like you have less time and less money these days? This morning on the Today Show, we went over some tips to help you have more time while saving money in the months ahead. Take a look!
“I am going to get about $3500 as a tax return. I want to buy a CD at the bank for $1000 and try to pay some of the credit cards debt I have. I have about $13,000.00 in credit card debt outstanding. I also have 3 store cards and 1 credit card that are in good standing but maxed out. What should I do?” – Annette, Pennsylvania
Once you have your emergency cushion in place, paying down credit card debt is a terrific use for your tax refund. (If you don’t have that emergency cushion, put the $1,000 in a money market where you can access it if you need it rather than in a CD.) Take a look at the interest rates on the cards you’re carrying. Use the money to completely pay off (if you can) the card with the highest rate of interest. More…
Piggy banks have been around for not just years, but centuries. The term began as a reference to regular old jars, made out of a type of clay called pygg, that people used to save their pennies.
Today, you can find piggy banks in all shapes and sizes, made of ceramic, metal, porcelain, plastic – you name it. Some even have an electronic or battery feature that will count your coins as you insert them, tallying up your total so you know how much you’ve saved toward your goal.
Still, it’s clearly not the most effective way to save. Not only is it too easy to access your cash, it’s also too easy to spend your bills before they ever make it in the slot. Then there’s the little issue of interest – if you’re not earning some return on your money, you’re actually losing cash to inflation.
These days tools that will help you save automatically, and programs that speed your progress. Many are focused on saving for college, but others are multi-purpose. Here’s a run-down of the ones I’m liking right now:
Upromise is one of many programs that works by depositing money in your college savings plan when you shop at certain retailers or buy certain products. You register your credit or debit card with the company, and then they track your usage, giving you a small kickback when you make a qualifying purchase. Does that mean you should buy a new couch so you’ll get the cash back for college? No. But if you need – and can afford – a new couch, and you have a choice between a retailer that works with Upromise and one that doesn’t, you might want to spend your money at the participating retailer. The program is free, and you can invite friends and family to join as well and donate their rewards to you. Upromise partners with 600 online retailers, 8,000 restaurants and over 21,000 grocery stores.
LittleGrad. This service works much like Upromise, but your shopping must be done online. You sign up on the website, and in the process, either open a free 529 college savings plan or input the information for your existing plan. You then download a savings software that earmarks a percentage of every eligible purchase so it’s automatically transferred to your 529. Like Upromise, friends and family can sign up as well and contribute to your account. LittleGrad has partnerships with about 2,000 online retailers.
SmartyPig is an online savings account with some perks to help you reach your goals faster. You set a goal – say, next summer’s vacation, your husband’s birthday present, or that new couch – a timeframe, and an amount you need to reach that goal, and SmartyPig does the math to tell you how much you should contribute on a monthly basis. That amount will automatically be deducted from your checking account each month and placed in an FDIC-insured savings account until you reach your goal. You can set multiple goals at a time, a perk in my book because when you save for everything in one big pot, it’s too easy to spend the money earmarked for your emergency fund on your vacation instead. Once you’ve reached your goal, you have the option of receiving the cash plus your interest (accounts are now earning 2.01% APY) on a retailer gift card (a good option if you know exactly where you’re buying that couch, not so good if you don’t) or as a transfer back into your checking account. Often, retailers will kick in a bonus for putting your cash on their gift card – Kohl’s, for example, will give you an additional 5%.
ING Direct. This is another online savings account, no bells and whistles, save for one thing – it allows you to set up multiple accounts that act as sub-accounts, or pots, so you can prioritize your savings goals and keep your money separate. Each account is free, and you can set up automatic transfers from your checking account each month or even week. So say you want to save $50 a month for next year’s vacation and $25 a month for a new television – that money will be automatically withdrawn from your checking and placed in the appropriate sub account. You can track all of your accounts on the same screen and transfer money between sub accounts as needed. ING Direct is currently offering a 1.30% variable APY.
Piggy banks have been around for not just years, but centuries. The term began as a reference to regular old jars, made out of a type of clay called pygg, that people used to save their pennies.
Today, you can find piggy banks in all shapes and sizes, made of ceramic, metal, porcelain, plastic – you name it. Some even have an electronic or battery feature that will count your coins as you insert them, tallying up your total so you know how much you’ve saved toward your goal. In my family, growing up, we had a big red bull bank – but we called it The Pig.
Still, it’s clearly not the most effective way to save. Not only is it too easy to access your cash, it’s also too easy to spend your bills before they ever make it in the slot. Then there’s the little issue of interest – if you’re not earning some return on your money, you’re actually losing cash to inflation.
Whether you’re saving for this summer’s family vacation, or getting a jump on the holidays, these days there are tools that will help you save automatically, and programs that speed your progress. Many are focused on saving for college, but others are multi-purpose. Here’s a run-down of the ones I’m liking right now: More…
WHAT: YouRenew, an online business where you can buy, sell, and recycle your old electronics.
WHEN: 2009
HOW: People, planet, and profit: the three bottom lines on which Rich Littlehale wanted to launch a company. Passionate about preserving the environment, Littlehale was in his junior year at Yale University when he stumbled upon a golden idea. “I had originally thought up an idea for a beverage company,” says Littlehale, “but the initial capital required and the barriers to entry seemed too daunting.” More…
It wasn’t that long ago that most of my weekday mornings included a stop at Starbucks. There, I would spend a little over $3 on a breakfast I justified as relatively inexpensive by coffee bar-standards: A Grande Misto (coffee with a little bit of steamed milk) and a Top Pot donut (made all the more delicious by the fact that it seemed to have been literally dunked in a pool of glaze).
All that changed in April of 2008. That was when Starbucks stores started posting calorie counts of all of it’s options. My Misto was fine – even though I had it made with 2% milk rather than skim (which seems to me little more than colored water) – but the donut weighed in at 495 calories. I did some mental math: Nearly 2500 calories a week, 10,000 calories a month. Or three pounds I had to avoid or work off elsewhere. I stopped cold turkey.
Which is why I wasn’t surprised at the results of a new piece of research out of Stanford University. It found that More…
As a distressed homeowner, should I try to modify my loan, or short sale my home?
-Eve, Florida
By distressed, I assume you mean unable to make your mortgage payments. If you can pay your mortgage – even if your home is one of the one-third in this country that are underwater – then as long as you are not in a position where you have to sell, you can hold on and wait for property values to come back. But if you can’t pay, you’re right to be exploring both of these options.
Let’s run through the pros and cons of each. More…
When a natural disaster – like last week’s earthquake in Haiti, or our own Hurricane Katrina – strikes, it seems urgent to give whatever you can, be it $5, $100 or more. You want to act fast, to help people when they need it most. And Americans have – to the tune, so far, of $210 million.
But when you give, you want to be certain that your money ends up in the right hands – and gets there as quickly as possible. Like I mentioned this morning on the Today Show, that’s not always easy. Any urgent appeal to give, unfortunately, brings out the worst in scam artists and hucksters who are already eager to get their hands on your money (or your personal information), not to help. Here’s what you need to know: More…
From savings dilemmas to FICO scores, the Money 911 team is there to help you through your money emergencies! Watch the video below to see how we tackled your questions this morning on Today. Do you have a money question you need answered? Click here to submit it!
Pop quiz: How much do you spend each month on dining out? Gas? How much do you give to charity? Well, if you’re living in New York City (zip code 10016 to be exact), you spend $869 eating out, $67 on gas (you likely don’t own a car, and if you do it’s garaged much of the time), and give $148 to charity. If you’re in San Francisco (94117), you spend $522 dining out, $114 on gas and give $74 to charity. And if you’re in Houston (77036), just $147 eating out, but $146 on gas and give $62 to charity.
“I am going to get about $3500 as a tax return. I want to buy a CD at the bank for $1000 and try to pay some of the credit cards debt I have. I have about $13,000.00 in credit card debt outstanding. I also have 3 store cards and 1 credit card that are in good standing but maxed out. What should I do?”
WHO: Rich Littlehale
It wasn’t that long ago that most of my weekday mornings included a stop at Starbucks. There, I would spend a little over $3 on a breakfast I justified as relatively inexpensive by coffee bar-standards: A Grande Misto (coffee with a little bit of steamed milk) and a Top Pot donut (made all the more delicious by the fact that it seemed to have been literally dunked in a pool of glaze).
As a distressed homeowner, should I try to modify my loan, or short sale my home?
When a natural disaster – like last week’s earthquake in Haiti, or our own Hurricane Katrina – strikes, it seems urgent to give whatever you can, be it $5, $100 or more. You want to act fast, to help people when they need it most. And Americans have – to the tune, so far, of $210 million.
