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BillSavings BlogFor This Recession, Put Away the PlasticPosted By FrankIt tends to be a natural reaction to lean times, it seems, to increase our reliance on credit cards when money is tight in the hopes that later on things we'll get better and then you can pay off your credit card balance when the economy begins it's recovery. The numbers back me up on this line of thinking, as there was a 7% annual rise in U.S. Household credit card debt. Yet with the recession winding up to be much worse than anyone expected, this may be a time to put the plastic away, hunker down, and try to hold out with your financial situation intact, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.Read the rest of "For This Recession, Put Away the Plastic" Category: Credit Cards 11/19/2008 Are We Learning to Like Frugality?Posted By FrankThere's no question that over the past decade or so we've come to love the idea of bigger and better. Consumerism drove us to buy huge gas annihilating sport utility vehicles, loaded up on the biggest house we could afford, and tried to slap on as much status brand clothing and equipment we could get our hands on. Much of that, unfortunately, was driven by credit, and with the economy quickly falling apart into a deep recession, most consumers have been forced to cut back. This shift in thinking from a societal point has actually driven many people to save and watch their spending even if they don't have to, according to an article at The Wall Street Journal.Read the rest of "Are We Learning to Like Frugality?" Category: Personal Finance 11/19/2008 10 Green Holiday Gifts Under 25 DollarsPosted By VictoriaWe are in a peculiar position this holiday season; our family and friends have become more important than ever as we face these tough economic times, yet we may not have the financial resources to express our appreciation for one another with elaborate holiday gifts. Top that off with the desire to give eco-friendly gifts, and the perception that these green treasures mean more dough and it’s enough to make you want to tear your hair out. Lucky for us, going green doesn’t mean spending more green. I spoke with Amanda Brzozowski, owner of Silver Sage Organic Boutique, Inc. Not only is she a store owner, but her passion is showing people that you can be eco-friendly without spending a lot of money. So, take a look at these green holiday gifts for under $25 that she recommended, and enjoy a stress-free holiday season!Read the rest of "10 Green Holiday Gifts Under 25 Dollars" Category: Personal Finance 11/17/2008 Along With Improved Economy, Voters Want Better Health CarePosted By FrankThe brutal economic downturn in recent months has dwarfed most of the other issues in this election, which likely contributed to the president elect Obama's victory earlier this month, but that doesn't mean that voters have forgotten. A recent article at Medical News Today showed that along with improving the economy, two thirds of voters also want improved health care and lower care costs. The poll was done by The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which released a preliminary presidential election exit poll.Read the rest of "Along With Improved Economy, Voters Want Better Health Care" Category: Insurance 11/14/2008 Credit Costs Fall, But Who Will Lend?Posted By FrankIt appears that recent government efforts to open the door on credit once again are starting to take effect. Lending rates have remained around historic lows, with the 3-month Libor rate (an important borrowing measurement) dropping to 2.18% on Monday. This marks the lowest rate we've seen since October 29, 2004. At the height of the crisis, that rate was 4.82%, and the overnight rate was at 6.88%. Needless to say this made borrowing for firms prohibitively expensive, and lowering said rates was an important step in loosening up the credit markets. Yet recent news has shown us that we're not out of the woods yet, as an article in CNN Money explained. Read the rest of "Credit Costs Fall, But Who Will Lend?" Category: Mortgage & Loans 11/14/2008 Worried About Money? Talk About ItPosted By FrankI don't care what the official word is on the economy. As far as I'm concerned we're in a recession, and a lot of consumers are feeling the pinch. Jobs are being lost every day, houses are heading into foreclosure, and people are being forced into bankruptcy. With all of this financial duress, it's not surprising that more people are finding it comforting to get their money problems off their chest in a verbal fashion. While in more prosperous times money was much more taboo, something that you didn't really bring up in “polite company” as a recent article at Yahoo! Finance examined.Read the rest of "Worried About Money? Talk About It" Category: Personal Finance 11/12/2008 Young Investors Aren't WorriedPosted By FrankIt's always fascinating to observe the stark behavior differences between demographics. Right now, older stockholders are running for the exits. With retirement just around the corner and their savings in peril with the gut wrenching drop we've seen in the markets, this doesn't seem all that surprising. Younger investors, however, are actually fairly excited about this opportunity. It gives them a chance to hit the ground running at a historically low price point. If history is any indication, this is the kind of market where fortunes are made over the long run. As an article in CNN Money points out, a lot of young investors are stepping up to the plate to play aggressive.Read the rest of "Young Investors Aren't Worried" Category: Personal Finance 11/12/2008 Why ARMs are Such a Problem for HousingPosted By FrankIf you've been paying any attention at all to the housing market over the past year, you've probably noticed that foreclosures are on a serious rise across the country. Whether due to the fall of housing prices, loss of jobs due to a weakening economy, or unfavorable loan terms, hundreds of thousands of homeowners are facing the prospect of losing their residence. Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken loans, is a veteran of the industry and puts much of the blame on adjustable rate mortgages, as he explained in a recent interview at CNN Money.Read the rest of "Why ARMs are Such a Problem for Housing" Category: Mortgage & Loans 11/11/2008 Your Home 2009: What to ExpectPosted By FrankWhile some regions of the country have been insulated from falling housing prices, by and large we've seen a pretty significant drop in prices that have left hundreds of thousands of homeowners “under water” on their mortgage obligations. Much of this drop has stemmed from a core problem that has afflicted financial organizations and consumers alike: the credit crisis. The lack of credit has prevented businesses from borrowing to get the resources they need, and potential home buyers with even slightly less than stellar credit are being turned away. Those that can borrow are still charged a high interest rate for the privilege, and so we've seen a slowdown in business activity across the board. While we can't predict where housing prices will go next, it's still important to prepare yourself and examine where they're likely to go, as a recent article at CNN Money did.Read the rest of "Your Home 2009: What to Expect" Category: Mortgage & Loans 11/11/2008 Save Money on Your Wedding Dress--Use a Parachute!Posted By SarahWedding blogger and bride-to-be, Laragale, has spotted a time-tested way to save money on your wedding dress while making it a special creation: use the fabric from a silk parachute. Read the rest of "Save Money on Your Wedding Dress--Use a Parachute!" Category: Personal Finance 11/11/2008 Top Ten Funny Money Saving TipsPosted By VictoriaSo I have been asking around the internet to see if people could suggest some money saving tips that I could share with the rest of the net world. I got some great feedback, but one e-mail I received from a gentleman named Bob Kalsey who wrote some pretty amusing money saving tips. So I hope you enjoy Bob Kalsey's Top Ten Money Saving Tips!Read the rest of "Top Ten Funny Money Saving Tips" Category: Personal Finance 11/10/2008 “Underwater” Mortgage Owners May Keep HomesPosted By FrankWith the gut-wrenching drop that we've seen in home prices in recent months, there have been a lot more homeowners who face the prospect of having their mortgage “underwater.” What this meas is that they owe more on their mortgage than the home is now worth, and it's been on the rise since 2006.Economists have worried that being underwater on a mortgage obligation is the first step on the road to foreclosure, but is that worry justified? A recent article at The Wall Street Journal examined the issue.Read the rest of "“Underwater” Mortgage Owners May Keep Homes" Category: Mortgage & Loans 11/7/2008 Rates Fall, But Credit's Still TightPosted By FrankYou'd think with the Federal Reserve pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the banking system while at the same time lowering rates, banks would start to open up the lending window again. Yet it still appears that they're hesitant to give that cash away, perhaps even scared. According to a recent article at CNN money, it may be awhile before we see credit markets really starting to thaw. Read the rest of "Rates Fall, But Credit's Still Tight" Category: Mortgage & Loans 11/7/2008 We're Ready For Change...in Health CarePosted By FrankGiven the sky rocketing costs in health care and increasingly higher premiums combined with a lack of capability to service individuals that aren't on an employer sponsored plan, and it probably won't come as a surprise to you that we're unhappy with out health care system. According to a recent Commonwelath Fund/Modern Heathcare Opinion Leaders Survey, two-thirds, or about 69 percent of respondents, expressed “strong dissatisfaction with the current system, according to a recent article in Medical News Today.Read the rest of "We're Ready For Change...in Health Care" Category: Insurance 11/5/2008 Debt: Why it Needs to go in This EconomyPosted By FrankUnless you've been living under a rock for the past six months, you know that the economy is heading into dire straits. Jobs are being lost, home foreclosures are on the rise, etc. In a tough economic scenario like this one, it's important to take the proper steps to protect your financial well being. A recent post over at Get Rich Slowly covered why the economy could get worse and what we can do to protect ourselves in the case that it does.Read the rest of "Debt: Why it Needs to go in This Economy" Category: Debt Solutions 11/4/2008 Crisis Spreads to Credit CardsPosted By FrankAs the economy's strength continues to wane and more jobs are lost with each passing month, it's natural that other parts of the economy and will be affected as well. Much of what's driven the housing crisis is the rise of foreclosures across the nation due to consumers buying into homes that I had no place purchasing. A similar phenomenon is currently taking place in the credit card markets as well. For years, the easy credit systems allowed Americans to take on huge credit lines, and as a result when they default on these large borrowings it causes more pain to the card provider's bottom line. According to a recent article at the New York Times, many card providers are already starting to pull back their credit lines in the face of increasing defaults.Read the rest of "Crisis Spreads to Credit Cards" Category: Credit Cards 11/4/2008 How Gender Affects Insurance PremiumsPosted By FrankWhen it comes to finding out how much health insurance will cost us, there’s usually a number of factors we take into account. Typically speaking, a young, healthy person will end up paying much less in premiums than say, someone over the age of fifty with a history of health problems and/or complications. Yet one aspect insurance companies take into consideration that we may not is the issue of gender, as women tend to pay “much more” than men of the same age and identical individual health insurance policies, according to a recent article in Medical News Today.Read the rest of "How Gender Affects Insurance Premiums" Category: Insurance 11/3/2008 JP Morgan Modifies Mortgages to Keep Consumers in HomesPosted By FrankThought all of the economic numbers that are thrown at us each and every day to accent this financial crisis, there’s one stat that tends to stand out the most, and that’s foreclosures. A very large portion of the economic pain being felt out there is due to rising foreclosures, as they tend to create a domino effect. As homeowners continue to lose their homes, prices in that area decline as foreclosures rise, which further drags more consumers under water. As a result, both the government and financial institutions are working to come up with a solution to stem the tide of rising foreclosures and keep people in their homes in a way that still benefits them while also keeping their customers solvent. JP Morgan is one such firm that’s working on a program to modify the mortgage terms on some loans in order to avoid further foreclosure rises.Read the rest of "JP Morgan Modifies Mortgages to Keep Consumers in Homes" Category: Mortgage & Loans 11/3/2008 Medicare, Social Security Face an “Abyss” in SpendingPosted By FrankIt’s true that things are pretty bad out there in the economy right now. Joblessness is on the rise, foreclosures are on the rise, stocks are down, housing is down, and we haven’t been given any indications that things will improve in the near future. I’m sure you’re tired of bad news, and I know I am, but it’s important to look to the future and see what problems we can work toward solutions for and avoid in the near future. One such problem is the upcoming 78 million baby boomers that are soon up for Social Security and Medicare. As a recent article in Fortune explains, there’s another crisis just around the corner.Read the rest of "Medicare, Social Security Face an “Abyss” in Spending" Category: Insurance 10/31/2008 Government Eyes Additional Mortgage AidPosted By FrankWith the economy’s conditions continuing to worsen and the government pledging hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to ailing financial institutions to help them shore up their balance sheets after being pummeled by sour mortgage securities, consumers have been wondering when (and if) Uncle Sam would step in to help them out as well. The answer, it appears, is maybe, according to a recent article at CNN Money.Read the rest of "Government Eyes Additional Mortgage Aid" Category: Mortgage & Loans 10/31/2008 |
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