- www.ycharts.com: Provides charts, historical data, and good explanations for various terms
- finance.yahoo.com: Simple layout of stocks/mutual funds; good for PEG ratio and dividend history
- moneycentral.msn.com: Simple layout of stocks/mutual funds; most useful info is on the front page
- jubakpicks.com: Jim Jubak's picks for various stocks; note that it's a free signup, but that they were stupid on the authentication and send your password as cleartext in email
- www.fool.com: Motley Fools website; good source for info and pay newsletters
Showing posts with label Financial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Financial. Show all posts
Friday, October 28, 2011
Financial Websites
This is a good list of financial websites that I use:
Monday, August 24, 2009
US Debt Clock
WHY ARE WE STILL SPENDING MONEY WE DON'T HAVE????????
This is a view of the website US Debt Clock.org
This is a view of the website US Debt Clock.org
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Credit Cards
Before writing this article, I'm going to make a statement.
IF YOU CAN'T PAY YOUR MONTH-TO-MONTH BILLS OR EVEN CONSIDER CARRYING A BALANCE ON A CREDIT CARD, DON'T GET ONE. PAY FOR EVERYTHING WITH CASH AND GET YOUR LIFE FIXED FIRST.
Simply put, I like cash back credit cards. If you're going to spend the money anyway, get some money back for doing it. Generally, somewhere around 1.5%.
Before you apply for any of the mentioned credit cards, make sure you investigate everything about them - do they have an annual fee, what are the terms for the rewards, etc.
My Favorite Cash Back Credit Cards:
A fantastic site to learn about the various credit cards is Ask Mr. Credit Card.
My final thoughts are that you should immediately take the cash you get from your credit card and put it into some type of savings account that earns interest; otherwise, you'll just end up spending it.
IF YOU CAN'T PAY YOUR MONTH-TO-MONTH BILLS OR EVEN CONSIDER CARRYING A BALANCE ON A CREDIT CARD, DON'T GET ONE. PAY FOR EVERYTHING WITH CASH AND GET YOUR LIFE FIXED FIRST.
Simply put, I like cash back credit cards. If you're going to spend the money anyway, get some money back for doing it. Generally, somewhere around 1.5%.
Before you apply for any of the mentioned credit cards, make sure you investigate everything about them - do they have an annual fee, what are the terms for the rewards, etc.
My Favorite Cash Back Credit Cards:
- Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa Signature® Card with WorldPoints® Rewards
- My recommendation
- No annual fee
- Earn 1.50% back on everything you spend
- You need a Fidelity Investments brokerage account to tie it to
- Chase Freedom Mastercard/Visa
- No annual fee
- Earn 3% back on 3 of 15 categories up to $600 in purchases; all other purchases receive 1% cash back
- You can learn more about this card here.
- American Express Blue Cash
- No annual fee
- Under $6500 in spending, 1% on everyday purchases, .50% on other purchases
- Over $6500 in spending, 5% on everyday purchases, 1.50% on other purchases
- You can learn more about this card here.
A fantastic site to learn about the various credit cards is Ask Mr. Credit Card.
My final thoughts are that you should immediately take the cash you get from your credit card and put it into some type of savings account that earns interest; otherwise, you'll just end up spending it.
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs will save you money. Forget about the green movement's environmental stuff. Just focus on the money savings.
For anyone that doesn't know, Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) Bulbs are the curly Q light bulbs that use about a quarter of the power of regular incandescent light bulbs.
After seeing these light bulbs show up in more and more places, I actually ran the numbers and converted my house. I saw my electric bill drop by several hundred kilowatt hours per month. First, lets show the facts.
Incandescent Wattage / CFL Wattage
100 Watts / 26 Watts
60 Watts / 13 Watts
40 Watts / 11 Watts
Electric bills are calculated in kilowatt hours. In order to get one kilowatt hour, you would need to run a 100 watt incandescent bulb for 10 hours. The equivalent CFL bulb is 26 watts. In order to reach one kilowatt with the CFL equivalent, it would need to be run for roughly 38.5 hours.
Let's do a real world example. Let's say you come home each day after work and turn on ceiling fan lights running 4 100 watt incandescent bulbs and 4 more 100 watt incandescent bulbs in your kitchen or another room. Also, let's assume you run them for 5 hours at a time. That's 8 lights x 100 watts x 5 hours x 30 days in a month which equals 120,000 watts or 120 kilowatts. At $.15/kilowatt, that would cost you $18/month of your electric bill. With CFL bulbs giving off the same light, the example would be 8 lights x 26 watts x 5 hours x 30 days which equals 31,200 watts or 31.2 kilowatts. At the same $.15/kilowatt, that would cost you $4.68/month. That's a savings of $13.32/month or $159.84/year just for changing out 8 light bulbs. The more you change, the more you'll save.
I know several people that want to change light bulbs after the incandescent ones burn out. Run the numbers yourself. You'll see that it makes sense to change out the bulbs now.
A couple of side notes from personal experience on CFL lights. I had a garage door light that would consistently burn out an incandescent bulb every 3-4 months. I switched it to a CFL, after a year and a half, I'm still on the same bulb. Also, for those that don't like the amount of heat generated from standard incandescent lights, CFLs run about 85% cooler.
Walmart has an online savings calculator here if you want to see how much you can save in your particular house.
For anyone that doesn't know, Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) Bulbs are the curly Q light bulbs that use about a quarter of the power of regular incandescent light bulbs.
After seeing these light bulbs show up in more and more places, I actually ran the numbers and converted my house. I saw my electric bill drop by several hundred kilowatt hours per month. First, lets show the facts.
Incandescent Wattage / CFL Wattage
100 Watts / 26 Watts
60 Watts / 13 Watts
40 Watts / 11 Watts
Electric bills are calculated in kilowatt hours. In order to get one kilowatt hour, you would need to run a 100 watt incandescent bulb for 10 hours. The equivalent CFL bulb is 26 watts. In order to reach one kilowatt with the CFL equivalent, it would need to be run for roughly 38.5 hours.
Let's do a real world example. Let's say you come home each day after work and turn on ceiling fan lights running 4 100 watt incandescent bulbs and 4 more 100 watt incandescent bulbs in your kitchen or another room. Also, let's assume you run them for 5 hours at a time. That's 8 lights x 100 watts x 5 hours x 30 days in a month which equals 120,000 watts or 120 kilowatts. At $.15/kilowatt, that would cost you $18/month of your electric bill. With CFL bulbs giving off the same light, the example would be 8 lights x 26 watts x 5 hours x 30 days which equals 31,200 watts or 31.2 kilowatts. At the same $.15/kilowatt, that would cost you $4.68/month. That's a savings of $13.32/month or $159.84/year just for changing out 8 light bulbs. The more you change, the more you'll save.
I know several people that want to change light bulbs after the incandescent ones burn out. Run the numbers yourself. You'll see that it makes sense to change out the bulbs now.
A couple of side notes from personal experience on CFL lights. I had a garage door light that would consistently burn out an incandescent bulb every 3-4 months. I switched it to a CFL, after a year and a half, I'm still on the same bulb. Also, for those that don't like the amount of heat generated from standard incandescent lights, CFLs run about 85% cooler.
Walmart has an online savings calculator here if you want to see how much you can save in your particular house.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Check Your Credit Report
One of the best methods to make sure that someone isn't stealing your identity is to check your credit report. I'm not a big believer in the sites that continuously monitor your credit reports. Others may disagree, but I think they are a waste of money.
That being said, I do believe you should check your credit report. The government has setup a website to allow you to annually check your credit report for free. That site is AnnualCreditReport.com.
For those that need to make sure this site is legitimate (yes, I was one of those people), check out what the Federal Trade Commission says about the site here.
There are 3 credit reporting agencies - Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. Since the AnnualCreditReport.com site only lets you freely check your credit report annually, I'd recommend staggering the checks. For instance, check Experian in January, check Equifax in May, and check Transunion in September. You can check your credit report every 4 months that way.
That being said, I do believe you should check your credit report. The government has setup a website to allow you to annually check your credit report for free. That site is AnnualCreditReport.com.
For those that need to make sure this site is legitimate (yes, I was one of those people), check out what the Federal Trade Commission says about the site here.
There are 3 credit reporting agencies - Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. Since the AnnualCreditReport.com site only lets you freely check your credit report annually, I'd recommend staggering the checks. For instance, check Experian in January, check Equifax in May, and check Transunion in September. You can check your credit report every 4 months that way.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Financial Links
Bankrate
Fidelity Investments
Google Finance
MSN MoneyCentral
Yahoo Finance
Bankrate is a one stop financial site where you can find out the rates for checking accounts or get financial advice on mortgages, retirement, taxes, or just about anything else financial. Use this site to educate yourself.
Fidelity Investments
If you want to buy stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc., go open a brokerage account at Fidelity Investments. I've been with several different companies over the years, and these people have their act together.
Google Finance
Google does a lot of things very well, but they need to look at these other sites and learn how to do a financial site. I put this site here because it can be helpful, but it's my least favorite.
MSN MoneyCentral
If you own stocks or mutual funds, this site is a must. It gives you the Morningstar ratings and last 10 years of returns. Also, in the case of a mutual fund, you can see the top 25 holdings and each of their returns.
Yahoo Finance
I love this site. It was the first one I started with years ago and it's still one of the first I go to about stocks and mutual funds.
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