Do you know what your household's savings rate is? Most of us probably have a rough guess, but I wanted to use some more reliable data. Here's the definition again for my purposes: Current Spending There are plenty of ways of tracking … [Read the rest]
National Personal Savings Rate Definitions: NIPA vs. FoFA
Posted on June 9, 2010 // Leave a Comment
In looking up some stats for personal savings rates, I found that the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) provides a chart of two separate calculations that track the personal savings rates of US taxpayers: The National Income and Product … [Read the rest]
Beyond Net Worth: Tracking Financial Progress Better
Posted on June 8, 2010 // 12 Comments
For a while now, I've been thinking about a better way to publicly track my progress towards financial freedom and also allow easier comparisons between readers. I'm sure some people would miss the net worth updates, but I have reached the point … [Read the rest]
Free Identity Theft Protection from SuzeOrman.com
Posted on June 7, 2010 // 11 Comments
SuzeOrman.com and TrustedID are offering 12 months of free identity theft protection valid through Thursday, June 10, 2010. (update: looks like it ended update2: back up with new link). It appears help you place fraud alerts on your credit files, … [Read the rest]
Betterment.com Review: Investing Made Simple, But Is It Worth The Cost?
Posted on June 4, 2010 // 18 Comments
New start-up website Betterment.com wants to make investing more easy... imagine something as simple as your existing savings account but with higher returns. Too good to be true? How does it work? At it's very core, Betterment is a standard … [Read the rest]
Tracking Inflation: Consumer Price Index Explained – Infographic
Posted on June 3, 2010 // 4 Comments
The U.S. government tracks inflation in many ways, and one popular way is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This index is then used to adjust everything from income tax brackets to Roth IRA contributions limits to pension payouts to the return on … [Read the rest]
How To Appeal Health Insurance Claim Denials – Flowchart
Posted on June 2, 2010 // 13 Comments
The US Department of Labor estimates that about 1 in 7 claims to employer health insurance plans are initially denied. A patient advocate says that she wins 80% of appeals. Yet only 4% of denials are appealed. These stats are taken from the … [Read the rest]
Driving A BMW = Six-Figure Salary and a College Education?
Posted on May 28, 2010 // 59 Comments
What types of folks tend to own luxury cars? At the end of a BusinessWeek article about the struggling Lincoln brand, I ran across this chart detailing the median income and age of the respective owners of each major luxury … [Read the rest]
Infographic: Overall Tax Rates For Single, Married Filers
Posted on May 27, 2010 // 9 Comments
VisualizingEconomics has a nice series of infographics that explore how various income-based taxes change with your adjusted gross incomes. It uses 2009 IRS numbers, but should still remain relevant to today. Below is a snapshot of a married … [Read the rest]
Boingo Wireless iPhone / iPod Touch App (Free Hour of WiFi)
Posted on May 27, 2010 // 1 Comment
Boingo Wireless runs a network of pay-for-use WiFi hotspots around the world. Their new Boingo Wifi Credits App now lets you buy WiFi time through iTunes at a rate of $1.99 per hour, instead of paying the monthly $7.95 per month subscription fee. … [Read the rest]
Happiness Is Earning $60,000 A Year?
Posted on May 26, 2010 // 135 Comments
Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman performed a TED Talk this year about how as humans our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. Basically, he says that our memories of … [Read the rest]
Free Financial Industry Trade Magazine Subscriptions
Posted on May 25, 2010 // 3 Comments
TradePub is a site with a big list of free subscriptions to trade magazines in various industries, from finance to IT/engineering to healthcare. I like the idea of reading about the industry from an insider's perspective. It’s all … [Read the rest]
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