Financial Services

Taking the time to teach your children a few financial lessons can insure they become fiscally responsible adults. Though nothing is set in stone – no one is doomed because of their parent’s choices – parents are in a unique position to deliberately mold their children’s financial attitudes and behaviors. And it all begins with talking and setting a good example.

Recent studies indicate that parents who regularly talk with their kids about money tend to raise much more financially responsible adults. Those parents also tend to encourage their children to set money goals and work towards those goals.

Just as important as talking to your kids about money is setting a good example – practicing what you preach. Children a

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A payday loan is something that tempts a great many people within the United Kingdom, particularly when a salary doesn’t quite stretch far enough towards the end of the month. Despite this, many people are put off the idea of taking advantage of this superb short term credit solution simply due to the fact that they are not sure what effects a payday loan will have on their credit file.

Many people are deterred by the possibility that taking out a payday loan might serve to have an adverse effect on their overall credit rating; in all reality, this could not be further from the truth it simply means, like any loan you might take out, you must ensure that you pay it back by the agreed date.

Prior to taking out a payday loan, a person’s credit file will have a credit check ran against it; the payday loan will then leave a footprint on their credit file.

When the payday loan is payed back in full, a report is made to the credit agencies which can then actually improve your overall credit rating. Read more…

For a limited time, Brunswick State Bank is offering customers the chance to step up their CDs for the 24 months or 36 months at competitive rates. The minimum to open such accounts is $2,500, although the minimum balance to open a “regular CD” is $1,000.

The 24 month CD is currently receiving 0.95% APY for principal balances less than $2,500; however, if your principal balance is $2,500 or more, then expect to earn 1.21% APY.

The 36 month CD is holding strong at 1.26% APY for principal balance less than $2,500. When your principal balance is $2,500 or more, the rate increases to 1.51% APY.

This is a one-time deal, meaning you are only allowed to step up your CDs one time, so take advantage of this opportunity to earn some great rates.

Terms & Conditions: Rates accurate as of 10/7/11. Rat

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The recent hubbub about debit card fees could have a big impact on you and your credit card.

In case you missed it, Bank of America proposed a $5-a-month fee on use of its debit cards, which it planned to roll out in 2012. But after much public outcry, Bank of America backtracked on these plans. Other banks had proposed similar debit card monthly fees, which were also rescinded.

Bank of America and other banks that had announced this fee did so in the wake of new regulations on debit card transaction fees, which were cut an average of 44 cents per swipe to 21 cents. That regulatory change is costing banks an estimated $8 billion annually, so the debit fee was one way to recoup the loss.

How banks may replace lost debit card fee revenue

While consumers won this round with the banks when Bank of America and other banks cancelled their debit card fee plans, the banks desire to replace that $8 billion in revenue hasnt gone away.

Banks may lie low for a while to let consumers cool off.

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If your relationship is undergoing a divorce process, then you would need an attorney to help you settle everything. But have you ever thought about hiring a financial advisor for your divorce? Although this is not popularly done, having a financial planner to give you an in depth financial guide while you are going through the complexity of this matter will make it a lot easier.

The best financial advisor for divorces is those who have vast experience dealing with cases like yours. Their insight for this matter can be very important especially if child support or alimony is involved because this could go on for many years. And even if you are not liquidating your assets or are contesting your stocks and investments, a financial advisor can help you out in preparing evaluations such as cost tool analysis and even economic forecasting when making your decision.

Certified Divorce Financial Analyst™ or CDFA™ is a certification given to financial advisors who have expertise in this field. It Read more…

Crude oil futures have plunged to their lowest level in a year, settling below $80 a barrel for the first time since September 29, 2010.

Heating oil prices are closely aligned to those of crude. A sharp dip in world crude prices could put pressure on the price of heating oil as we move towards winter and hit the start of the heating season.

In frantic last-minute trading on Friday, crude shed $2.94, or 3.5 percent, to finish at $79. 20 at the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Wall Street Journal reported. The selloff set a new 52-week low for crude futures.

Though prices had been depressed throughout the day, they slid dramatically in the last 25 minutes. Once the $80 a barrel level was breached it triggered automatic sell orders, accentuating the fall.

“It looks as if the equity market and the dollar drove prices below $80, and it triggered some pretty strong technical selling,” said Gene McGillian, a broker and analyst at Tradition Energy.

Oil prices have fallen this year from a high of $114 a barrel, largely on fears the global economy could slide into another recession and dampen demand for oil.

Heating oil prices, however, remain stubbornly high heading into the heating season. The

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The 50,000 point signup bonus for the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Card is unfortunately flying away just as fast as it flew in last month.

I doubt the promotion is getting the axe due to lack of popularity.  In fact, my guess is this card offer has been extremely popular among the millions of consumers searching for ways to bring down the cost of their holiday travel this year.  Its difficult to turn down over $800 in free money for travel, even if there is a $69 annual fee attached to the card!

If youve been waiting to pull the trigger and bank enough points for 2 free roundtrip tickets on Southwest, youve only got until midnight tomorrow, 11/11/11 (wow, what a cool date!) to do it.  After that, it could very well be a long time before we see this type of promotion again from Southwest and Chase.

Starting this weekend, Planet Money’s Adam Davidson will be writing an economics column in the New York Times Magazine. Here’s an excerpt from his first column. You can read the full version here.

The current economic downturn has been called a housing crisis, a financial crisis and a debt crisis, but the simplifying logic of the political season has settled on what is really more a result than a cause. We are now, according to nearly everyone running for office, in a jobs crisis. Every politician currently has a “jobs plan,” very often a list of vague proposals filled with serious-sounding phrases like “budget framework” and “regulatory cap” that are designed, for the most part, to mean both everything and nothing at all.

Starting this week, I’ll be writing a regular column in the magazine that tries to demystify complicated economic issues — like whether anyone (C.E.O.’s, politicians, people running for the presidency) can actually create jobs. The fact is that creating them in a far-too-sluggish economy is practically impossible in our current capitalist democracy. N

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A frequent question that pops into people’s minds is whether they are throwing money away by paying off their mortgage instead of investing that sum. In reality, that’s the last thing you should think about. Here’s why:

Sure, the return of the stock market is higher than the interests one pays on mortgages, but is your money really earning the return of the market?

Instead of just focusing on what your money could do if you invest that sum in the S&P 500 index, you should really be thinking about the returns of all your assets as a whole because that’s the true yield you are getting. This includes the equity in your home, all your savings accounts that are barely earning any interests, the bonds you own, and finally, the stocks that you have in your portfolios.

But even if you forget about all that and just think of your investment portfolio, the results could surprise you. Say you get a 6% return, with taxes factored in, it would really be more like a 5% gain assuming you will have some long and short term gains as well as taxes on dividends.

On the other hand, your 4.5% 30-year fixed rate mortgage is more like a 3.5% loan with taxes.

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One of the most common idea floating around in Australia is that as long as unemployment rate does not spike, mortgage defaults will not rise and consequently house prices will not crash from mass foreclosure selling.

That idea, taken in isolation, is self-evidently true. But is it logically correct to leap from this idea and jump to the idea that as long as the tide of unemployment holds low, there wouldn’t be a housing crash in Australia?

To answer this question, let’s take a read at this interesting article from MacroBusiness,

Australian banks pretty much only know how to lend against property. From time to time they rabbit on about lending against cash flow, but the truth is they do not have the skills. They vanished in the 1990s when merchant banks started disappearing.  Investment banks are just financial tricksters fiddling with assets. As we see with Macquarie’s fate, they do not know how to invest in real businesses that achieve steady growth from serving customers.

There has been a sharp rise in business credit for SMEs since the mid 1990s, which pretty much tracks the property asset bubble. In 1996 it was about $13 billion, two thirds of which was secured against property. By 2008

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