USAinDebt

Probably everybody have heard that there is something called 401(k), but a lot of you don’t know what it is. Well, 401(k) is a voluntary retirement investment plan, and in simple words that is money you save for retirement.

There are two types of 401 plans. There is a 401(k) and also a 401(k) SIMPLE (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees). What makes them different is their allowances:

The SIMPLE plan is generally for companies that have 100 or less employees. Employees with SIMPLE can contribute maximum of $10000 per calendar year, or 12000 for individuals of age 50 and up. Employers are also required to contribute 2 to 3% employee contributions if SIMPLE 401(k) is offered.

Regular 401(k) plans (for companies with 100+ employees) allow workers to contribute up to $15500 per year, or 20500 for employees of age 50 and older. Employer matching is not required but most companies do match certain percentage.

Read the rest of this entry »

A pretty interesting article by Jonathan Clements, who gives some good advice on how to be ready to face recession: reclaim savings, downsize debt. Short tips on 401(k), Roth IR and other savings accounts; mortgage & refinancing; debt.

 Getting Going on WSJ.com

Tags: wall street journal | jonathan clements | savings | debt | cash

$8,993,695,814,457.91 or almost nine trillion us dollars. This is the current debt that our government is liable for. That’s more than the national debt of Japan, Germany and Italy combined. And even though Bush’s administration recently announced that 2007 deficit has dropped $90 billion below the reported in 2006, we’re still up to our ears.

Why is the government sinking in debt? Why is there a deficit? The federal budget deficit is the yearly amount by which spending exceeds revenue. So, they dropped the deficit. Great accomplishment! But in the real world reducing the deficit only means that less is added to the current national debt. Until deficit exists, this thirteen-digit number will continue going up. In the beginning of 2004, it was just above the 7 trillion mark. By November of 2005, this sum was way above 8 trillion. With the an estimated population of the United States already above 300,000,000 souls, each citizen’s share of this debt averages to about $30,000. But that is not all. As every other loan, the US national debt comes with an interest. And for the fiscal year of 2006, $406 Billion of taxpayer’s money were paid in interest to the holders of the national debt.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Annual Percentage Yield is a financial formula, used to calculate how much a deposit earns as interest. The higher the APY, the better the investments & the return!

As its name suggests, the Annual Percentage Yield is calculated for the period of one year. APY is a compound interest (you earn interest on your initial deposit + on your earnings). Different companies compound on a different time basis-daily, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, yearly. Accounts with frequent deposits usually tend to have more frequent compounding periods. Higher compounding frequency means better return, better APY. <!–adsense–>

When choosing investment accounts, inquire about the compounding frequency. The account with the higher frequency is the one you want to put your money in

Tags: apy | credit | apr | investment | interest | compound

WiseBread.com has an interesting article on the slowly “sinking” US currency. The author has pointed out a couple of things that directly affect us because of that.

“It takes more than $1.40 to buy one euro today. It cost less than $1 as recently as late 2002. A Canadian dollar is worth just about exactly a US dollar–a parity not seen since the 1970s. Should Wise Bread readers care? If so, what should they do?”

The sinking dollar on WideBread

Tags: us currency | euro | inflation

USAinDebt just moved to its permanent hosting at SAVVIS data centers in US. We can now enjoy faster loading time and 99.9% server uptime!

More updates are to follow as new features are implemented, some downtime is possible.

Tags: usaindebt | hosting | updates

Introduced just recently (September 18th) Mint is the new “must have” in your Favorites. “Refreshing Money Management” is the company slogan behind this free finance management system.

My first good impression is the design and the usability of Mint’s interface. Light, very intuitive and easy to use. Everything is well-organized and in the right place. Mint offers a whole set of helpful money-management tools. Checking the balance on all your credit cards and bank accounts at the same time is done in a snap. The system can automatically retrieve your financial information from more than 3000 US banks and credit card companies. Email and text alerts can also be set-up to give you an early warning if something goes wrong with your account(s).

Mint categorizes and tracks all your transactions, and displays neat colorful charts that give you better view of your spending. It also has a built-in feature that tracks your spending habits and suggests ways to save funds by finding better credit card deals. You can easily compare and pick what suits your case.

In short, Mint is something to definitely take a look at. With its intuitive interface, helpful tools, accessibility and zero cost to the user, Mint has a great potential to grow further.

Mint

Tags: money management | mint | bank accounts | finance management | balance

jkOnTheRun has an interesting article that can help you out by saving you some $$$ with your cell phone bill. Good tips for Verizon, AT & T, T-Mobile USA and Sprint customers.

 Read full article here

Tags: verizon | t-mobile | at&t | sprint | cingular | save | cellphone

I personally often have questions that people around me cannot answer. That is when I turn to Forums. Well, I had a lot of finance-related question, and after digging trough Google’s search results I stumbled upon a great websites. A bunch of them, I should say.

OurCommunityPower.org is a coalition of 4 different communities: Debt, Mortgage, Credit and Insurance. The website is stuffed with useful articles, calculators and a bunch of other things. I have already registered in 3 of the communities and the members that post there a friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. The Debt community has partnered with a debt counseling service that gives free consultations to forum members.

And another plus: ever felt that you should be rewarded for posting - well, at OurCommunityPower.org you actually get paid to write! Each of the Forums there has its own point system, which automatically calculates your rewards and displays them in your profile. You can request your rewards to be sent by PayPal just by sending an email to the admins. A word of note - posting gibberish proved not to work, since the moderator’s team is pretty big and experienced

Something that made a huge impression on me was a post, where a forum member was saying that it is impossible for her to handle her financial situation anymore. In minutes, the topic was full of posters, who were donating their hardly earned points to the member in trouble. That was just something that I wish I could see more often.

Visit Our Community Power

Tags: community | debt | forums | mortgage | insurance | credit

Newsday has published some disturbing numbers: just for the period of one year, foreclosures nationwide have jumped with the whopping 115%. Exactly 243,947 were the filings in August, hitting the highest point in a single month since foreclosure statistics were tracked by RealtyTrac starting back in 2005.

 ”The jump in foreclosure filings this month might be the beginning of the next wave of increased foreclosure activity, as a large number of subprime adjustable rate loans are beginning to reset now,” said James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s chief executive.

Foreclosures in US rise 115% since last year on Newsday

Tags: foreclosure | filings | realtytrac | mortgage