Personal Finance

Most people know the importance of saving. However, few people take the necessary steps to jumpstart their savings account. They may deposit a little money here and there, but at this rate, it can take years to grow a decent financial cushion. Some people don’t think about saving their money until they’re well in their 30s. However, younger adults typically have fewer financial obligations, thus it is easier for them to save money. Maybe you’re in your late teens or early 20s. Maybe you just recently started a family. Putting your financial goals on paper can motivate you to save your money. Are you looking to purchase a home in the next few years? Do you want to start planning your child’s college education early? If you’re ready to take your savings account to the next level, here are four financial tips to help you: Re-evaluate Your Credit Card Situation If you carry a lot of consumer debt, it’s hard to save money. The less you owe, the larger your savings account. For this reason, make debt repayment a priority. Pull out all your credit cards and check your interest rates. Low interest credit cards are easier to pay off because you pay less in interest each month. If you’re currently paying a high interest rate, there are ways to lower your rate. Sometimes, all you have to do is call your credit card company and request a better rate. Understand, however, credit card companies only offer lower rates to people with an excellent payment record and a good credit score. Even if you meet these qualifications, your credit card company may deny your request. No worries. Shop around for a credit card with a lower rate and transfer your balance. Think About Retirement Many twenty-something adults don’t think about retirement. But the earlier you start planning for retirement, the more money you’ll have when you’re ready to leave the workforce. If you work full time, take advantage of retirement options offered by your employer. You may be eligible to contribute to a 401(k) plan or participate in an employer-sponsored pension plan. Likewise, contribute to your own individual retirement plan. Visit your local bank and talk to a banker about opening an IRA. Set Aside a Percentage of Your Pay How much do you put in savings each month? Granted, you can only do what you can afford. However, aim to deposit at least 10% of your earnings in savings. Therefore, if you bring home $2,000 a month, save at least $200 a month – that’s only $50 a week. Reduce how much you spend dining out or shopping and saving money becomes easier. Plan for College Do you have young children? If so, don’t wait until they are teenagers to start planning for their college expense. College tuition is costly, but the earlier you begin saving, the easier it is to pay this expense. Look into section 529 college saving plans. This is an educational savings plan designed to help families afford future college expenses. Nearly every state has a 529 plan. Contact a financial advisor for information on setting up your savings account. Saving does not have to be a scary word, and even if your finances need work, there are ways to fit saving into your budget. Spend carefully, reduce expenses, and you can take your savings to the next level.

Many know that bestseller "Fifty Shades of Grey" began as erotic "Twilight" fan fiction, but it never could've been successful unless author E.L. James rewrote it into a completely original work. Copyright law wouldn't allow it.Now, Amazon has figured out a work-around that will let fans publish and sell their derivative works. Starting in June, authors will be able to submit fan fiction for sale in Kindle Worlds, a new store specifically "for fan fiction inspired by popular books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games."Amazon says it has already licensed three series geared toward teen girls: "Gossip Girl," "Pretty Little Liars" and "Vampire Diaries."Read 3 remaining paragraphs on MoneyTalksNews.com.

Discover Bank Discover Bank has been providing banking products since 1911 with service designed to keep their customers financial goals in mind. Discover Bank’s products and services include Discover-card branded credit cards, CDs, money market and savings accounts, home loans, and personal and student loans. Their payment services include PULSE, one of the nation’s leading ATM/debit networks, and Diners Club International, a global payments network. As a card brand, Discover competes with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. However, Discover directly issues its cards, unlike Visa and MasterCard. Discover is the fourth largest credit card issuer, behind Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citi when measured by card balances. Based on MyBankTracker’s Bank Report Card, Discover Bank scores 3 out of 5 stars overall, ranking high in good bank financial health, interest rates, remote deposit access, and mobile bank services. The bank ranked poorly among customer reviews, scoring only 2 out of 5 marks on average. Amonopoulos writes that he opened his first credit card with Discover when he was in college and hasn’t regretted it since. He comments on the superiority of their rates and rewards program in comparison to other student cards. He also mentions that in one year he was able to establish credit, was rewarded with a good APR and an increased credit line. He continues by praising their online interface and helpful customer service, and finishes by saying “I would recommend Discover to everyone.” The Discover it credit card for students comes with a number of perks and forgiveness features that vastly outnumber those offered by other competitor student credit cards, including the Bank Americard for students and Capital One’s Journey Student Rewards Credit Card. Some of these benefits include: no annual fee paying late won’t raise your APR 100% U.S. based customer service available any time no foreign transaction fee 5% cash back in categories that change each quarter offered to all card members unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases Sheila H. on the other hand, gives her perspective by sharing her ordeal with Discover. In her review, she speaks about how she has tried for three weeks to get money back from a CD she closed early. She was given the go around, first being told she would receive her money by check, which she didn’t. She mentions repeatedly calling and getting a different response each time. She says, “I have been told the check is lost, that they have issued another and it is being overnighted, that they’re verifying a stop payment on the first check and will call me back. I’m worried that I will NEVER get my money back.” She finishes her review by saying she feels as though she has been scammed. If you currently use Discover Bank, visit their profile page on our site to read more reviews, see how they rank, find branches near you, and more! Or leave your review of a bank or product by visiting our Reviews page. (Reviews have been edited for clarity.) Related Stories: Top 5 Credit Cards With No Foreign Transaction Fees Saving Rates Report May 2013: Major Cuts at Online Banks What Are Excessive Withdrawal Fees and Federal Regulation D?  Review Roundup: Discover Bank

More than 400 consumers will soon get a check from the government, but it's not a tax refund.It's money from a government settlement with a company accused of marketing medical discount plans as health insurance, the Federal Trade Commission says.Consumers were promised no-deductible insurance when they signed up, sometimes for hundreds of dollars a month, but instead got "membership in a 'benefits association' consisting of health care-related discounts with little or no value," the FTC said. According to the agency, people who complained couldn't get refunds.Read 5 remaining paragraphs on MoneyTalksNews.com.

U.S. corporations are increasingly stashing cash overseas. Nearly a dozen major companies are thought to be hoarding more than $40 billion each beyond the reach of Uncle Sam.But much of it might not be overseas at all, The New York Times says. Take Apple as an example:Apple’s $102 billion in offshore profits is actually managed by one of its wholly owned subsidiaries in Reno, Nev., according to the Senate report on the company’s tax avoidance. The money is tracked by Apple company bookkeepers in Austin, Texas. What’s more, the funds are held in bank accounts in New York.Read 4 remaining paragraphs on MoneyTalksNews.com.

Naked With Cash is the year-long series on Consumerism Commentary where seven readers’ households share their financial progress on a monthly basis. I’ve partnered with financial planners who will offer some guidance along the way. Read this introduction to learn more about the series. Anonymous S is a 24-year-old engineer earning $67,000 a year plus bonus. He also builds websites on the side for an hourly fee of $20 to $35. Read his bio here. Anonymous S is on Team Roger, with Certified Financial Planner Roger Wohlner. Keep reading to see how Anonymous S progressed throughout the month of April. Following his net worth report own analysis, Anonymous S will be able to read feedback from Roger. Roger Wohlner, CFP appears courtesy of The Chicago Financial Planner. Anonymous S’s comments and analysis April was definitely a transitional month. I moved in with my girlfriend and started my new job, and both are definitely steps in the right direction. We just signed a lease for a new place that starts in June. With upfront costs equivalent to three months’ rent, that will take a substantial bite out of my liquid assets. I planned for this, and my checking account was able to survive. Once expenses normalize, I plan to decrease the size of my checking account. The apartment’s rent is $2,750 a month, but split over two people this is actually a very good deal for what we are getting. Plus, it’s right in the center of Manhattan, under ten minutes to almost every subway line, and a ten minute walk to work. It includes a gym (saving $50 to $100 per month per person), as well as washer and dryer in the unit, saving time and money. The kitchen is also very nice, which will give us an incentive to cook. My credit card bill was much higher this month due to some flights and travel-related expenses. I’ve also had to eat out a lot more, since using my current kitchen is impractical. In May, I hope to keep expenses relatively low while exploring New York City. I still won’t have access to my new place until June, so eating out will continue to be a relatively large expense. I’m looking into tax-efficient placement of my assets, and I may want to roll my previous 401(k) into my current IRA to simplify my assets. Once that is completed, I would work to put tax-inefficient holdings in my IRA, while moving anything tax-efficient to my standard Vanguard account. Since I’ll no longer have access to a 401(k), I need to figure out a new plan for investments. I’ll probably aim for a similar timeline, but would like to have some reduced risk so I can take out money for a house in the future. However, I don’t plan on buying a house for at least five years. Feedback from Roger Wohlner, CFP Congratulations on the move to New York City and the new job. You seem to do a good job with your overall finances. The one tip that I would provide is that you need to ensure that you continue to sock away money for your retirement even though your new employer does not offer a retirement plan. At this point a combination of an IRA and probably some taxable investing is the way to go. I’m not a fan of co-mingling any savings for a home down the road with your retirement savings, especially the IRA. Just because you can do something, like use an IRA for short-term savings, doesn’t always mean that you should. Anonymous S, April 2013 Net Worth is a post from Consumerism Commentary. New to Consumerism Commentary? Start here.

Since I’ve started blogging, I have had more than a few people ask me how they too can make money from blogging. It’s easy to look at people who have risen to fame and prominence by building a high-profile, money-making blog and think “Hey, I can do that, too.” You might not become the next Perez Hilton or Dooce, but if you play your cards right, you can start to pull in an income from your blog. Whether the income is enough to allow you to quit a full-time job depends on a number of different factors. No matter how much you end up making, creating a blog that you find exciting is one of the fun ways to make money online. There are a few different ways you can make money from blogging. I recommend using a combination of income-generating methods. Some techniques might work for one type of blog, but not another, so it’s a good idea to try several to see what generates the most revenue for you. AdSense When it comes to putting advertisements on your blog to generate income, Google’s AdSense is often the top pick for bloggers. It’s simple to use and doesn’t require you to have a great amount of technical know-how. To put an AdSense ad on your blog, you pretty much just have to copy and paste the code. It’s also one of the biggest advertising networks available, so you’ll have a wide range of advertisers to work with. That also means that you can make money from it even if your blog falls into a pretty obscure niche. Amazon Associates The Amazon Associates program allows you to earn a portion of sales when people click-through from your blog to Amazon.com and make a purchase. You only earn money when people buy something from the web giant and the amount you earn varies based on what people order and how many people purchase through your links. The Associates program works best for people whose blog focuses on products and shopping in someway. You’ll earn more money if people are in a shopping mood when they visit your site. Other Affiliate Programs While Amazon’s affiliate marketing program might be one of the biggest out there, it’s definitely not the only one available. Depending the topic of your blog and the amount of traffic you get, you can participate in any number of other marketing programs. Some marketing programs only want blogs that have a high traffic volume, so you might have to wait and build your audience before signing up. As your blog grows, fun ways to make money online can include reaching out to small companies whose products you trust and use to see if they would like to set up an affiliate marketing program with you. You would post a link to their product on your blog and if someone clicks through your blog to their site and orders it, you would get a portion of the sale. Private Sponsorships As your blog becomes more established, you can start to find ways to make more money through private ad sales and sponsorships. Unlike AdSense ads, private ads don’t just come to you. You’ll have to go out and find them, much like the advertising staff of a magazine approaches companies about placing ads in their pages. To sell private ads, you’ll need to convince the company that your blog has a sufficient amount of traffic. You’ll also need to show the company that your blog’s topic is a good fit for whatever service or product they offer. E-Books When you blog, you provide people with information for free. One way to expand on the information you give people and make money doing it is to write an e-book and sell it on your blog. Ideally, your e-book will connect with the content on your blog and expand on it in some way. People won’t want to pay money for content you’ve previously given away. For example, if you have a cooking blog, your e-book could be a short cookbook featuring previously unpublished recipes. The recipes could have been tested by a group of people before publishing and not availa

There have been many, many times over the past several years when I have felt completely overwhelmed by the huge gap between where I am right now and where I want to be. My big dream is to reach true financial independence. By that, I mean that I have enough money socked away in relatively stable investments so that the income from those investments provides me with enough for my family to live on regardless of whether I’m actually earning income. Why is that my goal? It’s not so that I can sit idle. It’s so that I have the freedom to take giant personal risks, like spending several months doing nothing but perfecting a novel or spending a bunch of time laying the groundwork for a charity or campaigning full-time for a political position without having to worry about the downside of failure. There are moments – and those moments are surprisingly frequent – where that goal simply seems impossible. It feels like an absolute pipe dream. I tell myself that it’s something that I will never, ever achieve. I feel overwhelmed. I feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the goal. I feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of little steps that it will take to get there. In those moments, I’m sorely tempted to just toss the goal aside, forget about it, and live solely for today. It is very, very, very easy to just believe that “future me” will take care of my future and that I have no responsibility for it. I felt that way today. As positive as my financial progress has been over the last several years, I sat here running through the numbers on my spreadsheet and I felt almost hopeless. The path to where I want to be is a very long one, even beyond the successes I’ve already had in terms of turning my financial life around. It feels enormous, and I almost feel overwhelmed. For me, the way out of this is to go back to the very basics. First of all, I look at what I already have achieved. I can achieve things – big things. I built The Simple Dollar out of nothing at all. I turned my financial life around, moving from being scared to open the mailbox to debt freedom and mortgage-free home ownership. We have a healthy amount of money in the bank and in various investments. We’re in very good shape. Second, I look at why I want more. Why do I want more than this? I think about Sarah. I think about my children. I think about the things I want to leave behind that will continue to improve the lives of others, even after I’m gone. All that I want to achieve in life centers around those things. Finally, I look at today. Nothing matters more than today. Can I finish off today with a run of good choices? Doing that makes my financial situation at the end of today better than it was at the start of the day. It’s hard to do that sometimes, especially when everything feels overwhelming, but it’s the key. If you can go to bed that night knowing you did everything right today, you’re going to go to bed happy. Do it again the next day, and the day after that, and you’ll really have something. If you feel overwhelmed by your goals, look at what you’ve already achieved. Look at why you’re striving for something more. Then, just focus on today. Get that momentum back and, before long, that sense of being overwhelmed will fall away. The post Overwhelmed appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Did you know that 73% of parents discuss family finances with their children? While that’s an impressive number, many children still aren’t on the same page when it comes to conversations about money. From how banks and credit cards work, to what the stock market is, see the hot money topics kids have on their minds. Then read on for stats on which parent does a better job at money management and which parent kids usually turn to when they are looking for a handout (the answer sure did surprise me!). Click on “Launch Infographic” for an expanded view.

Mike Deerkoski / Flickr | http://www.flickr.com/photos/deerkoski/7178643521/ On Tuesday, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, sat before a committee in Congress to defend Apple’s practices of tax evasion, where they were accused of dodging about $9 billion in taxes from more than $44 billion in income. Cook insisted that for American sales, Apple pays 30.5% of its profits in taxes, and that they are abiding by all U.S. laws. But Senator Carl Levin from Michigan had “just issued a 40-page report on how the company shifts money around the world in order to avoid paying American corporate tax rates,” reports The New Republic. According to the report, Apple had been using corporate loopholes in order to pay almost no tax on their profits funneled through shell companies in Europe — most of the companies being in Ireland. According to the New York Times, “Apple subsidiaries — based in Ireland but spanning other regions around the world — had helped the company pay as little as one-twentieth of 1 percent in taxes on billions of dollars in income.” These ghost companies have no employees and are run by Apple’s upper management, and because so many of Apple’s products are digital, they can be shifted around to avoid tax codes that were design for industrial corporations that sell tangible products. By keeping its subsidiaries “in places like Ireland, Apple was able to, in effect, make them stateless — exempt from taxes, record-keeping laws and the need for the subsidiaries to even file tax returns anywhere in the world.” In addition, “about two-thirds of Apple’s global pretax income in 2011 was recorded in Ireland, yet only 4 percent of its employees and 1 percent of its customers were located there.” However, Apple consistently denied being involved in any “tax gimmicks.” The craziest thing is that none of this is exactly illegal, which means that technically Apple isn’t doing anything wrong. Apple is just taking advantage of something called a “tax shelter,” which many large corporations also take advantage of. Businessweek writes that Amazon also redirects a lot of its cash outside of the U.S. so that they can avoid taxes. But unfortunately for Amazon, it had stashed a lot of its cash in Europe and when the European economy tanked, so Amazon ended up recording a huge loss of $338 million. Apple hasn’t had this problem, so at the moment it’s still only paying taxes at about a 30% rate, which seems ridiculous for a company that has hundreds of billions in cash. What do you think? Should Apple pay up, or should Congress back off? Live Hassle-Free: 11 Must-Have Apps in 2013 Related Stories: The Rich Got Rich By…Being Lucky? Do the Rich Pay the Most Income Taxes? Income for Poor Grey Only $59 in Four Decades Apple Evaded Billions in Taxes