by Silicon Valley Blogger on November 12, 2009
| 17 comments
Some considerations before you decide to buy a foreclosure.
Not All Cheap Houses Are True Bargain Homes
A bargain is synonymous to a “great deal” — something that has value and has an ROI. The truth is, not all cheap houses are great deals; in fact, some are considered liabilities. But let’s not forget that liabilities can be found anywhere as well: for instance, I once discussed how some friends made a bad investment and lost a million dollars on a vacation rental they owned.
These days, cheap homes are everywhere, especially in certain residential communities that have fallen into foreclosure. I still can’t seem to wrap my head around how Detroit houses can be purchased for a third of the money you’d need to spend for a new car. That’s also because that same $7,000 house in Detroit would probably fetch several hundred thousand dollars if it were located here in San Francisco: I can’t find any homes here that will go for less than $100,000.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on November 10, 2009
| 10 comments
Will I need a new credit card again?
We haven’t had much luck with our credit cards lately. Within the year, we had some issues when our Advanta business credit card accounts got closed with little warning. Advanta closed down their credit card division due to tough business conditions.
This time around, we’re hearing rumors about what may happen to our personal credit cards. You see, we carry Upromise rewards cards which used to be managed by Citibank. For years, we were happy with our cards, given that we were great customers who paid in full and on time, each month. Then came what we thought was a minor inconvenience: Upromise switches out their card issuer to Bank of America. No biggie for us just as long as they keep with the status quo.
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by Guest Blogger on November 9, 2009
| edited by SVB
| 11 comments
Do you want to get rid of your debt? Then here’s a do-it-yourself debt management plan you could try!
We all want to keep an eye on our waistlines, but why not watch our “wastelines” too? Eating better and eating less can go hand in hand with spending less and getting your finances in order. I am, in fact, doing both. I started on an improved diet a few weeks ago and just the other day discovered Oprah’s “debt diet,” even though it has been in existence since 2006. They fit nicely together. In both areas, I am trying to be more frugal and am aiming to make better choices.
In the eating arena, I am eating healthier food in smaller portions — more fruits and vegetables, fish, nuts, and treating myself to desserts sparingly. I think about my new food choices before I buy anything at the grocery store. In the money arena, I want to make a budget and stick to it, buy only what I need, and use cash whenever possible. Less splurges at the grocery store will definitely help with the food bill, and this behavior should positively affect other financial areas of my life as well.
So what is Oprah’s debt diet? Oprah gathered together three finance gurus — Jean Chatzky, David Bach, and Glinda Bridgforth — to share debt elimination tips, to suggest ways people can increase their incomes and decrease their debt, and to help several families solve their financial dilemmas.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on November 8, 2009
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For those of you shopping around for a new stock broker, there’s some good news I’d like to share. Not only are the investment markets performing better lately, but there have also been some attractive promotions that a handful of our favorite online stock brokers have decided to offer to new account holders. Here’s a quick list of ongoing offers and promotions I’m familiar with. Some of them are only available for a limited time, so you may want to check them out before they expire.
Online Stock Trading Promotions From Top Brokers
1. TradeKing is offering a $50 cash bonus for anyone who opens an account between now and November 30. This ongoing promo will only be good till the end of this month. To be eligible for the bonus, you’ll have to fund your account with $2,500 and make your first trade. After meeting these requirements, you’ll get the money deposited into your account.
Other benefits of using TradeKing include:
- Flat, very low cost stock trading fees of $4.95 a trade.
- Transfer fees are reimbursed up to $150.
- Referral program that gives you $50 for each new customer you refer (to TradeKing).
- Award winning broker for top customer service, trading tools and social media features.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on November 6, 2009
| 11 comments
I’ve discussed how to avoid foreclosure and how to avoid bankruptcy in the past, but in some cases, things don’t work out too well, and there are people who end up becoming casualties of the real estate bust, credit crisis and weak job market.
Lots of people have been forced into homelessness due to a variety of reasons. Many cases of homelessness are because of mistakes and choices people make in their lives. There are those who fall into substance abuse and become stuck in this kind of existence. But there are other cases — particularly in recent years — that are not from bad choices. In some situations, it may be due to poor planning.
But this is not the entire story because there are those who fall into homelessness even with reasonable planning. Sometimes, even when you think you’re sufficiently ready for any kind of emergency, the sky does fall on you and you find yourself reeling from an unrecoverable financial predicament. Bad health can do it. Extended job loss can do it as well. Sheer bad luck and misfortune can just be in the cards for a while.
I used to think that with enough savings and preparation, nothing is insurmountable. Well, I’m halfway through my life now and I’ve seen enough to think otherwise. Sometimes, it’s about crossing your fingers too, and hoping that you never have to face a financial tsunami in your lifetime.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on November 6, 2009
| 2 comments
Update: The boot camp registration is now closed.
Here’s a reminder to those of you who’ve been contemplating on getting your finances in order. Ramit Sethi, the blogger and New York best selling author behind “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” is offering a personal finance boot camp — or interactive online course, if you will — that will run from November 9 through December 20. It will cover all topics from debt and credit management, to budgeting, saving, investing and entrepreneurship, and promises to help you get yourself financially organized.
I’ve written about this boot camp in detail here, so if you’re thinking of registering, November 6 is the final day to get signed up. The regular cost is $199, but I am offering a $50 rebate if you complete the course and register through this link. To those who’ve already signed up, this offer extends to you as well. 
by Silicon Valley Blogger on November 5, 2009
| 15 comments
Investing simply means putting your money to good use with the expectation that you’ll receive a return or reward for doing so.
A lot of us don’t have much money to spare. Sometimes you may find yourself with an extra $100; maybe someone finally paid you back for a long-forgotten debt (it’s happened to me!) or your mom sent you over a cash gift for your birthday. Or chances are, it’s just an extra $100 rattling around in your bank account that could find better use somewhere else.
A few days ago, I published a guest post on where to invest extra cash and savings. Well that post inspired me to reflect on how I’d personally make use of a little extra money.
Got $100? Best Ways To Invest Small Amounts of Money
1. Set up an automatic investment program.
I started an automatic investment program at a discount broker around a couple of decades ago. If my memory serves me right, I committed to placing $50 a month in a few mutual funds that represented diversified asset classes. I figured that I could afford to spare at least $50 a month on building a portfolio, and I found the process of choosing funds, deciding my allocation and finally starting an investment program pretty fulfilling.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on November 4, 2009
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Should I get a personal loan? At any given point in time, that’s what a whole lot of us are pondering. Taking on consumer debt has become one hard habit (or vice) to break.
One of the most eye-opening profiles on consumer debt that I’ve seen was one from the New York Times, where they presented a whole bunch of articles and multimedia elements to answer the question: how the heck did America get in the current financial mess it’s in right now? How did we fall into such a deep debt hole?
9 Decades of Consumer Debt: How Our Debt Problems Got Out Of Control
There’s a lot we can discuss about in this series (aptly called The Debt Trap) but I wanted to focus a bit on the interactive feature that gives us a look at consumer debt throughout the years (nicely illustrated by Amy Schoenfeld and Matthew Bloch). The graphic is entitled “The American Way Of Debt” and shows the average household debt and annual savings in today’s dollars, throughout nine decades (1920 – present). It’s pretty incredible to see just how much our love affair with personal loans, 0% APR credit cards and mortgages has caused our household debt to balloon to unprecedented levels (click on the image to enlarge it):
Image from the NY Times
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