Salient to Investors: Look for lenders that specialize in poor credit or after-bankruptcy loans. Be prepared to pay a much higher interest rate, secure the loan with assets, accept a smaller loan amount. Improve your credit before you borrow by making all of your utilities to insurance premiums to credit
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Better Than Cash Alliance, partially financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said electronic transactions are better than cash payments because: Less corruption and theft when payments can be easily tracked. The money gets where it’s supposed to go. Electronic payment helps unbanked people establish a record
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Most people don’t try to be financially independent because they think it’s out of reach. It comes down to the question – how badly do you want to be free from the requirement to work? To retire in ten years, live on 25% of your income and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Ellen E. Schultz writes: Rolling accounts that have the same tax-deferred treatment into a single giant IRA makes it easier to monitor returns, rebalance your portfolio, diversify your assets, take required distributions, compare fees, and update your profile Consider moving your taxable accounts to the same mutual-fund
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Census Bureau’s new projections show: The US population of just 399.8 million in 2050 versus 439.0 million projected in 2008. 90 percent of the US population in 1950 was white, versus 64 percent in 2010. (Beginning in 1980, whites are non-Hispanic white) Non-Hispanic whites will peak
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: We know we carry too much credit card debt, own too little retirement savings. Our confidence in our abilities to live on our meager nest eggs is far too high, and our emergency reserves too low. Schools don’t teach money management skills, despite their importance. Parents don’t hand down any money managing skills.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Ning at MoneyNing recommends the following to combat inflation in retirement: Buy a home which fixes your monthly payment for decades. Find lower-cost alternatives to replace what you enjoy. Skip some expenses regularly like by stopping the TV bills for a few months. Limit lifestyle inflation. Buy
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Cass Sunstein at Harvard writes: Joel Waldfogel at University of Minnesota said Americans spend $65 billion on winter holiday presents every year, much of which is unwanted. Personal debts tend to jump after December. Most people have an exaggerated sense of how much other people are like them so beware of thinking that
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Moody’s forecast home equity lines of credit will rise 30 percent in 2012 to the highest level since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, and rise another 31 percent in 2013. Mustafa Akcay at Moody’s Analytics said lending will keep rising if house prices continue to rise. The Mortgage Bankers Association forecast
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Older people are growing and are more likely to forgo purchases of houses, cars and other big-ticket items that the Fed is trying to encourage with near-zero interest rates. William C. Dudley at FRB of New York said spending by older age people is less likely to be easily stimulated by
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